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Study of Text, Chapter 13: II.The Guiltless Son of God, P 4. 6-7-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 4

4 Much of the ego’s strange behavior is directly attributable to its definition of guilt. To the ego, the guiltless are guilty. Those who do not attack are its “enemies” because, by not valuing its interpretation of salvation, they are in an excellent position to let it go. They have approached the darkest and deepest cornerstone in the ego’s foundation, and while the ego can withstand your raising all else to question, it guards this one secret with its life, for its existence depends on keeping this secret. So it is this secret that we must look upon, for the ego cannot protect you against truth, and in its presence the ego is dispelled.

Journal
So the ego sees us as guilty of “egocide” when we think we are guiltless. Jeez. Accepting that Jesus is right and guilt is an illusion and doesn’t exist at all, would undo the ego. It seems so simple and obvious that I don’t know what else to write. But I also know that that even as I sit here writing this, I am so annoyed with Microsoft Word and with Windows 10 that I could scream. What else is that except guilt. I find these companies to be guilty. I wish the repairmen on the road would move on down. The noise is distracting. Instead, I wish I was at my house listening to the birds sing to me as I write this. Wishing things were different is just another way of judging and finding guilt.

Guilt shows up in many ways and some of those ways seem valuable to me. I will learn to live with Windows 10 and I will adjust to the noise outside, but it took me years to let go of the grievance against my ex-husband. That seemed hard even though there is no hierarchy of illusions, and so it is no different than the noisy repairmen. It seems harder only because I valued the grievance against my ex more than I value the grievance against the repairmen.

The truth is, we must give up guilt in all its forms if we are to undo the ego. So I do what I can. I notice guilty thoughts and I remember that the peace of God is everything I want. Do I want my ex husband to be guilty, or do I want the peace of God? Do I want the morning to be filled with the songs of birds rather than the noise of street construction? Or do I want the peace of God? If the peace of God is everything I want, then I must decide. As I decide for the peace of God, guilt is undone because there is no guilt in peace. As the guilt is undone, so is the ego.

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Study of Text, Chapter 13: II.The Guiltless Son of God, P 3. 6-6-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 3

3 The darkest of your hidden cornerstones holds your belief in guilt from your awareness. For in that dark and secret place is the realization that you have betrayed God’s Son by condemning him to death. You do not even suspect this murderous but insane idea lies hidden there, for the ego’s destructive urge is so intense that nothing short of the crucifixion of God’s Son can ultimately satisfy it. It does not know who the Son of God is because it is blind. Yet let it perceive guiltlessness anywhere, and it will try to destroy it because it is afraid.

Journal

I had to read this a couple of times and to ask Jesus to help me understand it. I think the ego mind pushes against truth so simple and clear-cut and the mind refuses to understand. We chose the separation experience and in that choice guilt came into existence. All unfolded and with it, pain, suffering and death. So in that sense, we condemned the Son of God to death through our choice for separation.

We believe this happened in reality rather than in dreams and the guilt for what we believe we did is so intense that we keep that belief buried deep within our mind. But guilt and fear and insane beliefs can be hidden from our conscious awareness, but they still do their damage. The belief that we are guilty for condemning the Son of God to death shows up in so many ways throughout our day as forms of vengeance.

We crucify ourselves daily as we suffer sickness, poverty, hate, and so many forms of fear that they cannot all be named. We live lives of quiet desperation until the desperation becomes so intense that it takes a stronger and more destructive form. We push the unnamed guilt away by seeing it on someone else, not realizing that the someone else is part of our self, and so we wind up intensifying the sense of guilt rather than losing it.

But we remain the Son of God, and into this awful scenario A Course in Miracles is given and a memory of innocence and purity is awakened. The ego really hates this and is deeply afraid of it. It will fight every step of the way to keep guiltlessness at bay, pointing out our sins and the hopelessness of the situation. Who has not felt that before?

Who has not tried to practice the lessons and failed? Who has not tried to see with Christ’s Vision and only succeeded in judging instead? The ego says this means we are guilty and that guiltlessness is a foolish dream. But it is not guiltlessness that is the dream, but the ego. We are the Sons of God. We are perfect and holy and guiltless. And though we can dream of death, we are eternal. We are all that in spite of the ego mind we made. Nothing destroys our perfection, and certainly not dreams of guilt.

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Study of Text, Chapter 13: II.The Guiltless Son of God, P 2. 6-6-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 2

2 Yet consider how strange a solution the ego’s arrangement is. You project guilt to get rid of it, but you are actually merely concealing it. You do experience the guilt, but you have no idea why. On the contrary, you associate it with a weird assortment of “ego ideals,” which the ego claims you have failed. Yet you have no idea that you are failing the Son of God by seeing him as guilty. Believing you are no longer you, you do not realize that you are failing yourself.

Journal
What a mess this is! I don’t know who I am. I think I am Myron and all that entails, part of which is a deep seated belief in my unworthiness. Thus there is a lot of guilt in my mind, and when that guilt becomes too apparent I try to get rid of it by projecting it onto someone else. This used to make me feel better for awhile because I thought I was rid of it. What I learned is that the guilt was not gone, just hidden, and I was left with uneasiness that I didn’t understand or know what to do with.

Even now that I understand what is going on, the desire to project guilt is very strong. Part of it is habit, and I suspect that part is desperation and fear. Becoming free of guilt, even though it is not complete freedom, makes the guilt I do feel all the more painful. What I know is that I can let go of guilt. I have done it in many areas of my life, and it is just a matter of desire to release it altogether. My desire grows daily.

In the meantime, I do what I can and what I know works. I notice the belief in guilt and I ask for another way to see. I remind myself that above all else, I want to see differently. I remind myself that I am not alone in my efforts, that my efforts are heavily reinforced. One thing that motivates me very strongly is that that I am not doing this for Myron, though that is how I experience it. I am doing this for the Sonship, and my every effort helps the Family of God awaken to the truth.

As a minister of God, I teach through the words given me, but I teach even more effectively through my healed mind that reflects as my healed life. As guilt falls away in my mind, the ego is being undone and this becomes apparent to those who are ready to see it. There is nothing like demonstration to teach, and that is my function, first to accept the Atonement for myself, and then to be the Atonement in action so that I motivate others to desire it for themselves.

(Hmm. I had never thought of it quite like that before, and as I read what I wrote I wondered if that was true. I sat with it for a moment to allow Spirit to correct me if necessary, but all I felt was a warmth around my heart at the thought of helping my brothers as I help myself. It felt uplifting and joyful, so I am leaving it as I wrote it.)

If someone were to ask me how I handle guilt, I would say that first I learn to recognize it in all its forms, some of which are subtle. If I wish something or someone were different, then I am judging and thus making guilty. If I am sad because of someone or something, I have judged and thus made guilty. There are a lot of ways guilt shows up, fear and worry, for example. Becoming proficient at recognizing these ways helps me to do this work.

The next thing I do is notice if being aware of guilt is making me feel afraid or guilty for being guilty. Then I remind myself that I am just looking, not guilty. Looking is my job, and looking with the Holy Spirit is the means of healing the mind of the belief in guilt. If I become impatient that nothing seems to be happening, or if it is happening too slowly, I remind myself that this is just another way of saying I am guilty. “Let it go. Just let it go, Myron.” It is counterproductive to become guilty about undoing guilt.

My part is to acknowledge guilt, to look at it with the Holy Spirit, to desire freedom from guilt and to give the Holy Spirit permission to heal it in my mind, then to accept that healing. My behavior is just a picture of where I am in the healing process. I don’t try to change the picture, I just go back to the source of the problem, that is, what I am choosing to believe. I change my mind as many times as it takes.

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Study of Text, Chapter 13:II. The Guiltless Son of God P 1. 6-1-16

II. The Guiltless Son of God

1 The ultimate purpose of projection is always to get rid of guilt. Yet, characteristically, the ego attempts to get rid of guilt from its viewpoint only, for much as the ego wants to retain guilt you find it intolerable, since guilt stands in the way of your remembering God, Whose pull is so strong that you cannot resist it. On this issue, then, the deepest split of all occurs, for if you are to retain guilt, as the ego insists, you cannot be you. Only by persuading you that it is you could the ego possibly induce you to project guilt, and thereby keep it in your mind.

Journal
What I want, what I really want, is God, and guilt keeps me from God. I want to get rid of guilt once and for all. So why don’t I? It is not real, and I made it up. So getting rid of it should be as simple as changing my mind, and it is. But still I don’t do it. Why is that?

The ego wants to keep guilt. Guilt keeps the story going and keeps the idea of separation (ego) alive in my mind. Ridding the mind of guilt leaves it vulnerable to God and the ego cannot tolerate that idea. If we open our hearts to God we will never look back at the ego. It would cease to exist. And yet, if we accepted the guilt that ego claims for us, and accepted it fully, we could not stand it and would find a way back to God

It seems to me that the ego’s solution to this is to, first, convince us that we are the ego. This makes the idea of losing the ego sound like total annihilation. If we believe we are ego and then embrace the idea of releasing that belief, it is going to create a lot of fear in us. Then, secondly, the ego offers us some relief from guilt so as not to push us so far that we do something about the ego anyway.

The solution the ego offers is to project guilt onto others. We make everything someone else’s fault and thus see ourselves as a little less guilty, thus making guilt tolerable. At the same time, seeing guilt anywhere, in ourselves or in others, strengthens the belief that guilt is real.

The problem with the ego’s solution is that it doesn’t work very well. The thought of God is still in our mind. This thought of God cannot be eradicated, it will always be there calling us home. So there is no way ego can succeed in keeping us forever in its thrall. We continue the separation story only as long as we can tolerate it, and then we turn to the Voice for God rather than the ego.

As we do this, we discover that guilt has to go. We cannot know ourselves and know God if we continue to believe in guilt. I think of it this way; I cannot bring guilt into God, so guilt has to go. The biggest shift occurred for me when I began to realize that I was not just letting go of the idea that someone or something was guilty, but letting go of the belief in guilt itself.

 

I began to understand that seeing another brother as guilty was just an effect of believing in guilt. Now when I think someone is guilty it is an indication that I still think guilt is a valid belief in my mind. I ask that this false belief be healed while giving the story of a guilty brother as little of my attention as possible. I am not so interested in doing anything about the story; I want the source of the problem to be undone, and the source is my belief that guilt is real. Guilt is not real because God did not make guilt. It is just a part of the separation idea, a part of the ego. When we undo guilt, we have undone the ego. Do you see how important it is that we let the belief in guilt be healed?

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Study of Text, Chapter 13:Guiltlessness and Invulnerability, P 11. 5-31-16

I. Guiltlessness and Invulnerability, P 11

11 The ego teaches you to attack yourself because you are guilty, and this must increase the guilt, for guilt is the result of attack. In the ego’s teaching, then, there is no escape from guilt. For attack makes guilt real, and if it is real there is no way to overcome it. The Holy Spirit dispels it simply through the calm recognition that it has never been. As He looks upon the guiltless Son of God, He knows that this is true. And being true for you, you cannot attack yourself, for without guilt attack is impossible. You, then, are saved because God’s Son is guiltless. And being wholly pure, you are invulnerable.

Journal
As I read this, I watched a parade of “guilty” people go through my mind. With each one in turn I opened my mind to Holy Spirit’s judgment and saw their innocence. In the beginning it looked more like a funeral procession than a parade, but as my mind became more open and love began to well up in me, the people walking past turned to smile at me and the pace picked up. Now instead of walking slowly and dejectedly, they were strutting and their steps were light.

More and more I am beginning to accept that all I see is illusion. It is illusion within an illusion. I was talking to my son this morning about some changes at work and my concerns about them. Then I told him that I am changing my mind. I see that nothing has happened in this moment, and that all my concerns are an effect of my perception. Everything I have thought about the situation is an illusion in my mind, a decision to see things in a certain way and to proclaim it reality. And what I believe, is real for me so I am changing my perception..

God, today is a day in which I would have guilt dissolve before me like sugar in water. I would see everyone as they are, completely innocent. I would see myself as innocent with no regard to the past or the future. Today l know myself as love and thus everyone else as love. Today I will be happy and at peace.

If I make no decisions by myself, this is the day that will be given me.

I have found the Rules for Decision so helpful to me that in July I am offering a weekend workshop in Portland on just this section. It will be very interactive and hopefully everyone will leave with a clear understanding and a firmly established habit of using this process. If you are interested in attending the workshop, please check for details on my website. www.forgivenessisthewayhome.org.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 13:Guiltlessness and Invulnerability, P 10. 5-30-16

I. Guiltlessness and Invulnerability, P 10

10 You cannot dispel guilt by making it real, and then atoning for it. This is the ego’s plan, which it offers instead of dispelling it. The ego believes in atonement through attack, being fully committed to the insane notion that attack is salvation. And you who cherish guilt must also believe it, for how else but by identifying with the ego could you hold dear what you do not want?

Journal
This morning I looked at some work that was done for me and I was dissatisfied with it. I felt a spike of anger which I directed toward the one who did the work. Immediately, I felt guilty for making her guilty, then I tried to forgive her by thinking that I am being unreasonable and how it wasn’t really her fault. This is exactly the kind of thing Jesus is talking about here.

I first made this person guilty then tried to forgive. In so doing, I was keeping guilt in place and in fact, I was increasing guilt in my own mind. I was also failing to forgive because I cannot forgive if I believe in their guilt. Trying to justify the behavior only increases my belief that the person is guilty. I saw what I was doing and so I used the Rules for Decision to help me see differently.

This morning when I decided what kind of day I wanted to have, I tried on a few ideas, but nothing felt right. So I sat there in silence for a moment and waited for the right thought to be given to me. Then I knew; today I want to experience myself as the Love that I am. I want to feel that love well up in me and flow out to everyone else. I imagined the energy of that Love swelling within me, surging upward to its crest, and then breaking gently against everything in its path, and rippling outward blessing the entire Sonship.

I know this can happen - will happen - if I don’t block it with judgment and guilt. So when I feel something today that is not love, that doesn’t fill me with the joy of being what I am and extending what I am, then I am going to undo the guilt that is damming up the flow of love. I will do that by remembering that guilt is not real, no matter what I see in the illusion, no matter how strong the feeling of guilt might be, it remains unreal. I want to see differently. I open to the Atonement, not atonement for guilt, but atonement for the belief in guilt.

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Study of Text, Chapter 13:Guiltlessness and Invulnerability, P 9. 5-26-16

I. Guiltlessness and Invulnerability, P 9

9 Accepting the Atonement teaches you what immortality is, for by accepting your guiltlessness you learn that the past has never been, and so the future is needless and will not be. The future, in time, is always associated with expiation, and only guilt could induce a sense of a need for expiation. Accepting the guiltlessness of the Son of God as yours is therefore God’s way of reminding you of His Son, and what he is in truth. For God has never condemned His Son, and being guiltless he is eternal.

Journal
I noticed something new reading this paragraph. It says that when we accept the Atonement, that is, we accept our guiltlessness, we will know that the past has never been. It doesn’t say that the past will no longer affect us, but that it has never been. When I read something like this I get a feel for just how entrenched I am in the world and time as if they are real. Trying to absorb that the past has never been, which means my life (lives) have never been, boggles my mind.

My reaction is funny, considering that I thought I knew this. Evidently, it is one of those things where I understand the idea, but my belief has not caught up with my understanding. Fortunately, my belief will catch up eventually if I simply continue to do the work that is in front of me to do. What I must do is reject the idea of guilt in its every form, and do this in spite of appearances.

I can do this because I know just enough to realize that appearances are not truth. I accept this and I believe it. I can feel very strongly about an appearance, but my feeling doesn’t increase its veracity, it only makes it harder for me to ignore it. What seems to be helping me is to focus on the truth as much as possible. When I think someone is guilty, I ask Holy Spirit to show me the truth about them, and then I wait for true thoughts to fill my mind, or maybe just a true feeling.

Practicing the Rules for Decision, I have formed the habit of questioning the source of my information when I am upset. If I think someone is guilty, I ask myself what it is that helped me make that decision; was it ego or was it Holy Spirit? Knowing that it is guilt, I can be sure it was ego and I can change my mind and ask Holy Spirit to interpret the situation for me.

At first I saw lifetimes of distressing work ahead of me to undo all the wrong-minded thoughts. But then I began to see that my mind was shifting. I started out having to be convinced that this time no one was guilty. After awhile of doing this, I realized that no one was ever guilty, and that I just had to let go of my desire for the guilt to be real. I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

There is still some resistance on my part. I think of some particularly bad parenting decision I made when my kids were young, and I get caught in that loop for awhile. How could I be innocent when I really did this? I have screwed up kids to prove it. When I start valuing my guilt, it pays to stop it in its tracks, because if I let it go too long, it is so hard to get out of that trap.

The truth is, the past never happened. There is nothing to forgive except my belief that it did. I accept the Atonement in this situation and allow the Holy Spirit to remove the darkness from my mind. I remember that I am as God created me and if I think I am guilty, I must be having a bad dream. The only thing to do with a bad dream is to wake up.

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