VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 11
11 Do not accept your brother’s variable perception of himself for his split mind is yours, and you will not accept your healing without his. For you share the real world as you share Heaven, and his healing is yours. To love yourself is to heal yourself, and you cannot perceive part of you as sick and achieve your goal. Brother, we heal together as we live together and love together. Be not deceived in God’s Son, for he is one with himself and one with his Father. Love him who is beloved of his Father, and you will learn of the Father’s Love for you.
Journal
I am deceived in my brother if I believe anything about him that is not the truth, anything that is not what God created. I can see the ego behavior, but if I believe that he is his behavior, then I am deceived in him, and will be deceived in myself, and God as well, since we are one. I was reading an earlier entry in my journal this morning and came across this.
This is what I want. I want to see each person with the same vision I see my children. No matter what my children do or say, I know they are wonderful. I know they are perfect beneath their behavior. Their behavior is an illusion based on false beliefs and has nothing to do with who they are. It is insignificant next to their reality.
If they behave badly, I disregard it, and continue to see only the love that they are. Now that I have become very good at this, I am learning to see others in the same way. This is one of the ways that I am removing the blocks that keep me from remembering God and remembering my Self.
What I had written about how I see my children is an example of seeing with Christ Vision, and it is the way I want to see everyone. In seeing others in this way, I am healing them and healing myself. Healing does not require that anything be changed, only that we learn to choose to see what is actually there rather than the illusion we see when we judge.
Jesus tells us this very often throughout the Course. I don’t always do this. Sometimes I choose to believe my judgments, and when this happens forgiveness is needed. I need to forgive what I see and what I think so that we might both experience healing. This is the way healing occurs, and it is a miracle.
For this to be successful, I must accept that there are to be no exceptions in my life. Everyone, regardless of their behavior, and regardless of my ego interpretations of their behavior, is a perfect and holy Son of God. I must be willing to accept, without compromise, the healing of my mind that the Holy Spirit offers me. I must learn that I want this by asking for it and accepting it.
Jesus says that I must learn to love myself and that I cannot love myself if I don’t love my brother. I have noticed that it is impossible to love my brother if I don’t love myself. If I am feeling bad about myself, guilty or afraid, I project onto my brother and attack him for my feelings. So what do I do when I am caught in this cycle?
Actually, it is simple. I just jump in wherever I notice the error. I ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of whatever error I notice, and I accept His healing as quickly as I can. I trust that all will be undone, my judgment against myself and my judgment against my brother, because they are the same thing, really.
And here is my favorite sentence in this paragraph. “Brother, we heal together as we live together and love together.” I recognize this as both necessary and beautiful. I want this to be my reality all the time, so I am going to use it as a sweet reminder whenever I am tempted to be deceived in my brother.
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