Together, We Light the Way

Click link to go to:
Together We Light the Way Index

Study of the Text 2-4-13

2-4-13
8 The fear of healing arises in the end from an unwillingness to accept unequivocally that healing is necessary. What the physical eye sees is not corrective, nor can error be corrected by any device that can be seen physically. As long as you believe in what your physical sight tells you, your attempts at correction will be misdirected. The real vision is obscured, because you cannot endure to see your own defiled altar. But since the altar has been defiled, your state becomes doubly dangerous unless it is perceived.

There is a reason it is so important that I look at the mistaken thoughts in my mind with the Holy Spirit in order for them to be healed. Jesus explains here in this paragraph that I don’t fully accept that healing is necessary. I don’t want to see how badly I have defiled the altar so I refuse to look at my mind, but not looking does not mean the altar is not defiled and so I remain unhealed.

At first I hid from my mistaken thoughts by projecting blame onto everyone and everything else. This seemed perfectly normal to me. In fact when I first became aware of this, it was hard for me to see how the cause could be anything but outside me. It just seemed so obvious to me that it was my husband’s fault that I was miserable. Jeez, anyone who would just look at his behavior could see why I was miserable.

I wanted to believe what I read in the Course, but it just seemed so obvious that the cause of my unhappiness lay in the world. What I did see clearly was that if the Course was wrong and I was right, then I was doomed because there was no hope. I could not change other people and I could not control the world. My hope lay in seeing things differently so I gave more willingness to that, and I stayed vigilant in looking at my mistaken thoughts instead of looking for people to blame.

At first looking at the defiled altar was hard and I was resistant because of the fear that God would condemn me for what I found there. It’s funny when I think about it. It seems that I believed that if I didn’t look at what was in my mind, and if I didn’t take responsibility for it, then I was safe from God. I was miserable, but at least God would not know what I had done. If I couldn’t see it, then God couldn’t see it, seemed to be my strange logic.

Because of consistent practice, I have become nearly fearless in looking for mistaken thoughts. I see now that instead of being condemned for them as I had thought before, just the opposite is happening. I am being healed. This is wonderful motivation for going further and looking more deeply. When the body is in pain, I realize that it could only happen because I believe in pain. This must be a mistaken belief because Jesus says that pain is not real.

So I ask that my mind be healed of this belief and the Holy Spirit shows me other beliefs in my mind that are related to this one. I see that I am using sickness to defend against God. I am, in effect, saying that because I feel pain, and pain is not of God, then I must be separate from God. Maybe God does not even exist. Through my pain, I have protected myself from God by denying His existence, and the proof is in my suffering.

That was a very scary thought and while I had read about it in the Course some time ago, I have only recently been willing to accept that this was my plan all along. Once I was willing to really look, to accept responsibility for the plan, I became willing to let it go, and my mind was healed.

This is a very big part of ego’s plan to remain separate from God and so I seem to be doing this in layers. I look at the thought and ask for healing and I see proof of the healing, but then I pick it up again, perhaps in some new form, and it seems like I have to start all over. But not really. What I notice is that the next time, there is not so much reluctance to look and letting it go is easier. Each time I do this I move through the process more quickly and with less resistance.

So my first step was to become aware that I was hiding from God behind my pain and suffering. Then I had to become willing to look at the hiding places in my mind, the thoughts and beliefs that were the barriers against God, and be willing to give them up. I had to step out of hiding and stand before God, naked of my protections. Once I did this and saw that I was not punished or condemned for my error, it was just a matter of practice as I chipped away at the ego’s defenses.

What I then noticed is that the ego mind was getting sneakier. It was making exceptions to the rule, holding out certain areas in my life saying that these areas are special, and the rules do not apply. There were areas in my life that I was willing to see differently, and where I did choose differently, my experience changed.

For instance, I could pretty easily see that I was projecting my self-loathing onto others when I experienced them as rejecting me. I was willing to see that unconscious guilt was the true source of my feelings of unworthiness, and not the other person. As I became willing to let that be healed, I began to notice that people no longer reject me. I was no longer rejectable in my own mind, and so I did not have that experience in my life.

I began to see that when I experienced sadness that I was doing it to myself. I could see that the sadness was in my mind, and then took form in the world. I was sad because I missed God, and sad because I was living as if God was not my Source, but then that thought would lead me directly to the fear of God that I spend my life trying to avoid. So it was better to project that sadness as circumstances which explained it away and proved that I was not the wrong-doer (that I had not rejected God) but the victim. Better to be the victim than the target of an angry God, seemed to be my logic.

Once I became willing to look at my thoughts about this and then to see it differently, I was willing to let this be healed. There were many thoughts like this, each one coming into my awareness through the circumstances of my life. As each one was looked at unflinchingly, it was let go and since the thought was no longer there and so there was no longer a need to hide it, the projection disappeared as well, and my life became happier and more peaceful. That only makes sense.

Here is where the ego got really sneaky. As I was studying the Course, the ego was studying right along with me. The ego learned the language and uses it to confuse the situation. I bet most Course students have noticed this. I said that there were certain areas in my life that the ego would make special, idols that were untouchable. The way this was done was through using the spiritual language of the Course to confuse the mind.

An example is healing of the body. Nouk Sanchez, in an excerpt from her new book, The End of Death, talked about this, and I highly recommend it. This excerpt can be read on her web site. This is the link: http://undoing-the-ego.org/noukblog/?p=359. I’m not going to go into this too deeply right now, but here is how it played out for me. I would get sick and would be willing to look at the belief in sickness in my mind. I could even accept that this belief was just another defense against God. After all, how could God be real if pain and suffering are real?

Where the ego confused me was in seeing the effects of the mind healed of this belief. The ego would say that the body is not real so I should not be concerned with it, and to do so would be to make it more real. I should have caught on to this much sooner, but the words sounded right, and there is still fear of God in my mind, so I went along with the ego for a long time.

But eventually, the Holy Spirit found a work-around for me. He helped me to by-pass the ego thinking through guiding me to specific Lessons and to a study of the Manual for Teachers, and also a study of The Song of Prayer, and now a slow and careful study of the Text. Slowly, I began to see that my thinking was screwed up and that excluding the body (and certain other areas) from the miracle just didn’t make sense no matter how you dressed it up with spiritual language.

If the mind is sick it will project a sick world. If the mind is healed it will project a healed world. There are no exceptions to this and to make false exceptions is just another ego attempt to make separation real. By convincing me that the body should be excluded from the miracle, the ego was ensuring that I reserve some part of the illusion, and even one small thing held onto keeps imprisoned in my illusions. God is whole and I cannot know Wholeness if I still cling to separation.

Excluding the body from miracles also served to confuse me about the healing. I would feel peaceful when I turned the belief over to the Holy Spirit. I always feel peaceful when I do that. But then the body would be sick and I would be fearful that I had failed, or worse, that God had failed or that God didn’t really love me. Then I would see that thought and could not reconcile it with the Course and so decide that I was not supposed to include the body. But then I was making special and separate so how could that be right? You see how tangled the mind becomes when we allow the ego to join us on our spiritual path?

The cause of the world are the thoughts in my mind. Change these thoughts and the world changes. No exceptions. No special circumstances. If it is true for anything, it is true for all things. I choose not to make a false idol of sickness. As my mind heals sickness of the body becomes exposed for the fraud it is. If I slip back into false thinking again and this is projected onto the body, then it is just another opportunity to remember the truth for us all.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 2-1-13

2-1-13
7 Corrective learning always begins with the awakening of spirit, and the turning away from the belief in physical sight. This often entails fear, because you are afraid of what your spiritual sight will show you. I said before that the Holy Spirit cannot see error, and is capable only of looking beyond it to the defense of Atonement. There is no doubt that this may produce discomfort, yet the discomfort is not the final outcome of the perception. When the Holy Spirit is permitted to look upon the defilement of the altar, He also looks immediately toward the Atonement. Nothing He perceives can induce fear. Everything that results from spiritual awareness is merely channelized toward correction. Discomfort is aroused only to bring the need for correction into awareness.

I understand this. I have been studying the Course for over 30 years now, and for the first 20 years this was slow going and often so uncomfortable for me that I would have to stop for awhile. I was drowning in guilt and shame and fear. I knew, intellectually, that I could not actually hide anything from Spirit, but I could not bring myself to look at my guilt, much less invite Holy Spirit to look with me.

So I took it slow, and did the best I could. I would look at something from my past and I would feel even guiltier and more afraid, but I did it anyway, and then I would see that I survived it and even felt better afterward. I was encouraged to do it again. This went on for quite some time, and slowly my trust grew and the whole process sped up. I was no longer so afraid, and the peace that grew out of the process was a tremendous motivation to do more.

The last twelve years, I have been vigilant in this work, and now I look without flinching. I look with an eagerness borne of certainty that whatever discomfort I feel will pass quickly as the mind is healed. Looking at the errors in my mind is not the fearful work I used to think it was, but is my way out of pain and suffering. I have mostly stopped judging what I find there. Spirit has taught me that none of it is personal, and that doing this work is my purpose.

Here is something else that changed. In the past I would remember something I did that brought me shame or caused me to feel guilty when the memory rose in my mind. It was the act or the words that I thought of and that I felt bad about. I wanted to be forgiven for doing or saying this thing. Now I see the action or the words as symbols only. They represent a belief in my mind that needs to be looked at and then healed.

Seeing it from that perspective is very helpful. It makes it easier to do the work, but more importantly, I am learning that the world is not real and that this story is just a story and is not me. I am forgiven because nothing has happened. I am not here, living in this body, doing cruel or thoughtless things to other bodies. I am watching the thoughts that have taken form from the beliefs in the mind. I am watching them and learning that they are not true and that I don’t want them anymore. That is all that is happening.

I go back and forth on this still, sometimes watching the story with detachment, and sometimes watching myself fall into the story, and sometimes just lost in the story, completely involved and for awhile, unable to step back from it. But I know it is just a matter of time and practice before I will be able to remain the observer. The more often I do this, the harder it becomes to believe in the story.

In the meantime, I notice a wrong-minded thought and I look at it with the Holy Spirit. I give Him my willingness to let that belief go and He heals my mind. I am at peace. This is my process and it is the same one I have used consistently for the last twelve years or so. It works so I keep doing it.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 1-31-13

1-31-13
6 It should be emphasized again that the body does not learn any more than it creates. As a learning device it merely follows the learner, but if it is falsely endowed with self-initiative, it becomes a serious obstruction to the very learning it should facilitate. Only the mind is capable of illumination. Spirit is already illuminated and the body in itself is too dense. The mind, however, can bring its illumination to the body by recognizing that it is not the learner, and is therefore unamenable to learning. The body is, however, easily brought into alignment with a mind that has learned to look beyond it toward the light.

Jesus is going to a lot of trouble to help me understand the position and purpose of the body in our experience. He wants me to know that the body does not create. Accepting that this is true helps me to realize that if I experience sickness in the body then I must be projecting it there because the body cannot create sickness.

He is telling me that the body does not learn. It is a learning device, but is not the learner. Here is how I understand this. I project a body. This body is not real, but is just a thought form. I use this body to experience the world. Whatever beliefs I hold in my mind are projected onto the world and onto the body, which is part of the world, and it is there that I experience these beliefs as if they were actually real.

Obviously, expecting the body to learn would be like expecting my hammer to learn. The hammer is an excellent device for driving nails or removing them, but I cannot teach it to be something else. The body is an excellent device for experiencing my thoughts, but it cannot be taught to be something else. It can never be anything but a thought form that reflects my beliefs.

If my body is sick and I take it to the doctor and give it medicine, and then the body gets well, here is what I think happened. I think that “I” was victimized by sickness from something outside myself, or by the body itself. Then I think that something else outside of me caused the body to heal. I then try to protect this fragile home of mine by shielding it from all attacks. I spend my life in service to the body.

Here is what really happened. This body is a mirror to my mind. Just as a mirror faithfully reflects the image of the one standing before it, my body reflects the thoughts standing before it. When the mind is filled with guilty thoughts, those thoughts become reflected in the body and the world. When the mind is filled with fear thoughts, fear becomes reflected in the body and the world.

When we are afraid and guilty, we expect punishment and feel we deserve punishment. We project (or reflect) that expectation onto the world and the body and it appears on the body as disease or, we have an accident and suffer from that. Reflected on the world, we find ourselves in situations that are difficult, or relationships that are painful. All of these very real looking experiences are simply reflections of the belief in guilt and fear held in the mind.

Would it make any sense at all to try to get rid of the mirrored reflection? When I put my make up on this morning, if I smear my lipstick, I am not going to try to repair it by wiping the mirror clean. The problem isn’t in the mirror even though that is where I see it. The same idea works for sickness in the body, or any problem in the world. The body is just a mirror image. You can’t fix the disease or a painful situation by wiping at the mirror (the body).

The solution is to recognize the body for the learning device it is. The body shows us a clear picture of the thoughts we hold in our minds and the effects they have on our happiness. If the body is sick, this shows me that I believe I am guilty and I am afraid that I will be punished for that guilt. The source of my guilt is the belief that I have separated myself from God. This holds true for any form the guilt takes; relationship problems, money problems, any problem I think I have in the world is just a reflection of my belief that I am guilty.

The Atonement is the solution. The Atonement undoes the belief we are guilty. It restores the mind to its original sinless state. All that I need to do is accept the Atonement. I must take my eyes off the mirror images. This means I stop believing the body and the world I see is real. This means I stop trying to fix the problem where it is reflected, rather than where it is. The problem is not in the world or in my body. It is in my mind and this is what needs to be healed. A healed mind will reflect a healed body and a healed world. A mirror can only reflect what is standing before it.

Here is the prayer I am using so often now. It was adapted from what the angel told Eban Alexander in his near death experience, and from a prayer I learned from Barbara Griffin. It helps me let go of the idea that I am guilty and need to suffer for that guilt. It helps me to remember that while that thought is in my mind, I do not have to believe it or keep it. This prayer is equally effective when I am praying for others.

God loves me deeply and forever.
There is nothing to fear.
I can never do anything wrong. I am innocent now and forever.
This fearful situation in which I find myself (or someone else) was done by me, but now I would choose again. Holy Spirit, please come into my mind and undo what I have done.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 1-30-13

1-30-13
5 The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. This means you recognize that mind is the only creative level, and that its errors are healed by the Atonement. Once you accept this, your mind can only heal. By denying your mind any destructive potential and reinstating its purely constructive powers, you place yourself in a position to undo the level confusion of others. The message you then give to them is the truth that their minds are similarly constructive, and their miscreations cannot hurt them. By affirming this you release the mind from over-evaluating its own learning device, and restore the mind to its true position as the learner.

That first sentence is maybe the most important sentence in the Course for me at this time. Whatever is happening in my life at the moment, this is the thought that brings me back to my purpose. My sole responsibility is to accept the Atonement for myself. Then Jesus, this Master Teacher, sums it all up in one sentence as he tells me that all I have to do is recognize that only the mind is creative and that all its errors are healed by the Atonement.

I have been shown in this section that in the past I have given the body credit for being creative. Sometimes I have acted like the body has a mind of its own and that I have little control over it. Here are examples of how this occurs for me. I pretend it gets sick without my permission or active participation, and then convince myself this is true. I give into a craving or in some way feed its appetites, act like I can’t help it, and then feel anxious because I feel like the situation is out of control. 

The truth is the body is not creative and trying to heal it at that level is just another strategy the ego employs to keep me focused on the illusion and thereby protect me from God. Giving the body magic potions like medicine and vaccinations, or controlling the appetites through outward means like hypnosis to stop the craving for cigarettes or food, would be examples. (Not that I am suggesting we stop doing these things before the mind is healed enough to do so without fear.)

We may as well go to a witch doctor or sorcerer and let them chant over us and mix us up a potion from eye of toad for all the good it is actually doing. It is not at this level that healing takes place. There is only one creative force and that is mind, and so it is mind alone that needs healing. And how is the mind healed? Only through accepting the Atonement.

I see that Jesus says that the mind is healed as I accept the Atonement. I only need to accept it, and there is nothing for me to do other than accept it. The ego always feels resistance to the idea that my part is so small, but this is the truth. Everything else in the Course is devoted to showing me that I have need of healing, that I want that healing, and preparing my mind for the healing. In this part there is much for me to do, but for the healing itself, all that is needed from me is a simple, unequivocal “yes.”

I now accept that I need healing, that I really prefer peace, that only peace makes me happy, and that it is possible for me to have peace. I am learning that only the mind is creative. I say learning rather than knowing, because I see that I still have to remind myself that this is true. It is new enough for me to still sometimes automatically go to wrong-minded thinking and then have to ask for healing of the mind.

By accepting the Atonement my mind can only heal. This is a done deal and doesn’t need anything from me to make it true. I don’t have to try to heal or “do” anything to heal. A healed mind simply heals. Right now, I am still in the phase of accepting the Atonement, then returning to wrong-minded thinking, and accepting the Atonement again.

I am denying my mind any destructive potential and reinstating its purely constructive powers, but it is new for me and so I must protect my decision with my vigilance. I still watch my mind for wrong-minded thoughts and ask that I be healed. I still find areas that I seem to exclude from the Atonement and I am being gently led to look at those and decide again.

While in my right mind, I am a healer, and I am learning that I want to stay in my right mind. I am being shown what I need to do to make this so. As I become more consistent in my decision, I am more effective as a miracle-worker. The message I give others is more consistently the truth. This message is that there is only one level that needs healing and that healing brings peace and happiness. The message is that as they, too, are healed, they become healers, and that their minds are creative, and that their miscreations cannot hurt them.

This message is conveyed through my words, my actions and my thoughts. You can see how powerful the message will be when it is perfectly consistent. Look at the people who do this, people like Mooji and Byron Katie, for example. You see how others are drawn to them. We are drawn to these people (or people like them) because there is the same truth in our minds and that truth wants to embrace Itself, and to express through us all. Whoever is ready to accept the truth will hear the truth and long for more of it.

This is our job, our only job here. We are to accept the Atonement and become the miracle worker, the healer, the master teacher, so that others will be healed with us. This is the way healing will spread through the mind and the sleeping mind will finally awaken. Each and every time we become aware of a wrong-minded thought and choose differently, this is what we are doing. We are saving the world.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 1-29-13

1-29-13
4 The healer who relies on his own readiness is endangering his understanding. You are perfectly safe as long as you are completely unconcerned about your readiness, but maintain a consistent trust in mine. If your miracle working inclinations are not functioning properly, it is always because fear has intruded on your right-mindedness and has turned it upside down. All forms of not-right-mindedness are the result of refusal to accept the Atonement for yourself. If you do accept it, you are in a position to recognize that those who need healing are simply those who have not realized that right-mindedness is healing.

What a relief it is to know that I am not relying on my own readiness. Yesterday, during this quiet time with Spirit, I had an extraordinary healing experience. Later during the day the ego part of my mind wanted very much to deny what happened. To the ego’s way of seeing things, nothing really happened. There was no fanfare and, most disturbing to the ego, there was no sense of “doing,” nor of understanding.  The ego places great store in both doing and understanding.

The most persistent thought from the ego is that “I” am not ready for this. Jesus evidently expected that reaction from ego because he answered it right here in the next paragraph. I am not to rely on my own readiness, and not to be the least concerned about it, but to maintain a consistent trust in his. Thank you, Jesus. My gratitude to my elder brother increases daily.

The interesting thing about yesterday is not that ego attacked the idea that I accepted my role as miracle-worker, but that I felt mostly unconcerned about the voice in my head. I heard it but didn’t believe it. When I was in the process of allowing the miracle to take place, the ego voice was saying that nothing was happening and used the lack of a physical experience to prove it was not happening.

At that moment, a thought was placed in my mind gently reminding me of all the times I have received healing in my mind that happened so simply, and with so little display, that the only way I knew anything happened at all was the peace that followed. The ego wants constant and showy proof because of its lack of faith in self. But that it is the thing, I am not depending on ego-self.

I am still in awe that I did not accept the fear that ego offered, not during the healing nor later. I am most in awe that later, when I was not sitting in silence with that sense of purpose so strong and undisturbed in my mind, when I was fully in the world, I still was not interested in the ego’s fear thoughts.

My mind was right. For that time, I accepted the Atonement for myself and so my vision was clear. There were a number of times during the day that I noticed the draw to wrong-minded thinking about one thing or another, but the thing about these perfect, clear moments is that they bleed over into every other moment and lessen the impact, or at least shorten the effect of, wrong-minded thinking.

It seems that if I accept the Atonement for myself often, the permeation of that healing will enlighten the mind fully. Just as the ego ranting was just a background noise and without effect when it tried to convince me that nothing happened yesterday, I think this could be the way we can live in, but not be of, the world.

One more thought occurred to me. I read this sentence:

All forms of not-right-mindedness are the result of refusal to accept the Atonement for yourself.

I noticed that it said not-right-mindedness is the result of a refusal to accept the Atonement. It does not say that I cannot, or that I may not be ready to, but that I refuse to accept. That seems significant to me. When I do not accept the Atonement for myself, I am simply refusing to do so. But how could that be? How can my lack of readiness, however I feel that lack, really affect my ability to accept the Atonement?

Jesus says that I don’t need to feel ready if I will consistently trust his readiness. In fact, he says I can be unconcerned about my level of readiness. I can accept the Atonement for myself, and I believe that it is helpful for me to remember that not accepting the Atonement for myself is a choice I made. This opens me to choose again, whereas believing that I can’t yet make that choice closes me off to the possibility.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 1-28-13

1-28-13
3 I have already said that miracles are expressions of miracle-mindedness, and miracle-mindedness means right-mindedness. The right-minded neither exalt nor depreciate the mind of the miracle worker or the miracle receiver. However, as a correction, the miracle need not await the right-mindedness of the receiver. In fact, its purpose is to restore him to his right mind. It is essential, however, that the miracle worker be in his right mind, however briefly, or he will be unable to re-establish right-mindedness in someone else.

I like that first paragraph because it helps the thinking mind put some order to these ideas. The thinking mind wants to understand, and to be useful to me here in the world I do need some understanding of these things. But I know that my understanding is not complete and never will be as long as I am here. It is just a bundle of concepts that are temporarily helpful.

I used to think I studied the Course so that I could understand. Now I laugh at myself for that thought. I study the Course because I must. What seems to be happening is that as I study it, cracks appear in the solid wall of ignorance that is my belief that I know anything. This bit of an opening then allows something greater to find a way in and it shines a light into all this darkness.

This paragraph seems to be about attitude. When someone needs a miracle and I think it may be for me to perform that miracle, what is my attitude? Do I see myself as exalted because I am the one who is being called to do this thing? Or do I feel gratitude because I am the one who is asked to do this thing? Do I feel true humility, knowing that it is not the ego self that is doing this, but the Spirit within, God moving through me, that does all things.

When I look on the one in need of the miracle do I see this one as less than? Or do I see this one as God’s child, temporarily confused, but never less than His holy child, one with me and one with our Father. Can I, at least temporarily, forget our roles and our stories, and just be the love that I am?

Can I let go of the need to decide and to control? Can I just be empty? Can I just allow love to flow from me to my brother and to flow back to me, all unimpeded by my feeble efforts to understand it and to govern it? If I can be in my right mind just for a brief moment, mountains will move at my will, and healing will restore the world.

There is a little light in my mind that I have been tending so that it is brighter now. I allow that light to brighten and to flow from my mind to the brother whose face I see before me. This light gently coaxes the light in his mind to flame into brilliance, and together our light shines away the darkness that has hidden our truth and left us bereft.

This is not “my” light or “his” light. It is the Light that Is and needs only my acceptance to be Itself through us and in us. Just for a moment I know what I am meant to be. I have been given my assignment and I have accepted it. It is ok that my brother does not share my certainty. It is ok that he isn’t even conscious of our joining. My Heart’s desire has joined with his Heart’s desire and the Heart doesn’t need the mind’s help to be Itself. There. It is done.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 1-25-13

1-25-13

2 Magic is the mindless or the miscreative use of mind. Physical medications are forms of “spells,” but if you are afraid to use the mind to heal, you should not attempt to do so. The very fact that you are afraid makes your mind vulnerable to miscreation. You are therefore likely to misunderstand any healing that might occur, and because egocentricity and fear usually occur together, you may be unable to accept the real Source of the healing. Under these conditions, it is safer for you to rely temporarily on physical healing devices, because you cannot misperceive them as your own creations. As long as your sense of vulnerability persists, you should, not attempt to perform miracles.

This is a good paragraph for me to work with today, because I had this exact experience this past week. Here is what happened and how I used it.

I wore myself down moving until I was nearly sick. I was shaky and nauseated and weepy. When everything is going smoothly in my life I study what I need to learn, and I practice, in little ways, what I have studied. But when something happens that challenges what I have been studying, I get a chance to really practice.  This was one of those times. The first thing I noticed is it’s very hard to remember the truth when the body is in pain. Pain tends to focus the attention on the body and where the attention goes, so does my identification. When I focus on the body, I feel like a body.

What I did was to be mindful. I paid as much attention to my emotional reactions as I could. This was not a perfect practice because my mind felt tired, too. This is a different kind of tired. It is caused by stressful thinking. Thoughts like, “How will I finish in time? What if I can’t do this?” These fear thoughts lead to more fear thoughts, some completely unrelated, but all fear thoughts increase body identity, and negative thinking drains the mental energy just as overwork drains the physical energy. I recognized what was happening and asked for help, but the split in the mind was very apparent as I also gave a great deal of attention to the fear thoughts and the body.

Another thing I noticed is that I am going to project onto the body my belief in pain and suffering. This will happen for as long as I hold onto the belief that pain and suffering are real and that I am guilty and so deserve pain and suffering. This belief is deeply rooted in the mind and it is hard to let go. When I first started to work on this idea I didn’t really believe I would ever be able to not believe in pain and suffering. I was willing to try, though, and as I experienced small but undeniable results, my mind opened to greater possibilities. I began to realize that pain and suffering cannot be real and this further opened my mind to the light of truth. Now I know I will let go of this belief altogether.

This week I was reminded that how strongly I feel pain, depends entirely on how closely I identify with the body. The problem, of course, is that the worse I feel, the harder it is to remember I am not actually in that body. I overworked and began to feel the effect. If I had stopped there and remembered that the body has no creative ability and the exhaustion and pain I felt was the effect of a false belief I was holding in my mind, then I would simply have felt tired and achy and it would have passed quickly. I know this is true because it is usually my experience. But I got caught up in my thoughts and allowed them to run the show. I began to feel sorry for myself and to invite in fear thoughts and soon I was fully identified with the body. (Well, not fully identified with the body, because I did remember to ask for help out of my mental confusion.)

And that brings me to another realization. Whether it’s my physical body or my emotional body, it is hard not to think I should feel different. I have been working with these ideas and so I had this expectation that I would do better.  I began to think I should not feel this way and to believe I should stop my thoughts and feelings. That just makes the thinking errors seem so real and so important. I tried to bring my mind back to just noticing and asking for mind healing. This is very important. I will go from feeling miserable to being afraid if I think it means I have not learned anything. It can be a terrific opportunity to practice what I have learned, or I can use it to prove that I haven’t learned anything. It all depends on how I choose to perceive it.

This began on Thursday and by Monday I was really played out. I was in a lot of pain as well. I was also mentally and emotionally exhausted and recognized that I was not in a place to use the mind to heal. I had been, up to now,  practicing remembering the body is not the source of pain and suffering, and I had been doing this through not depending on magic solutions. I decided I needed to use magic at this time. Of course the ego wanted to see this as proof that I am a body, and a guilty one at that, and I saw those thoughts, but I had enough sanity left to realize this was not true.  Not taking medicine was never the point, but was just a way of teaching myself that I am not a body. Not taking medicine did not make me a better person and so taking it could not affect my worthiness either.

That was my experience. The way I stayed as sane as possible throughout the experience was to remind myself often that, in spite of appearances, I am not this body and this body has no creative ability so could not be the cause of the problem. I reminded myself that I am not alone and that I have Inner Guidance and an Inner Healer. These reminders felt weak, but it was good to know the truth was still there in spite of what seemed to be going on, and in spite of the strong ego voice. 

It helps me to remember this: Where is my body? It’s in my mind. Then where is my pain? Only one place it could be; it is in my mind. As I heal the mistaken thoughts in my mind, the body, which sits there right beside those thoughts, which is the effect of those thoughts, is healed as well. The practice, weak as it seemed, was enough, and as it strengthened, my mind recovered it’s sanity and so the body recovered. I began to laugh at the whole situation and to see it for the opportunity it was. I no longer felt the need for magical solutions as I recovered my trust and returned to healing the mind.

The prayers I used were these. First it was a simple call for help when my mind was in a weakened state. Then, as that prayer was answered, I recognized that it was fear thoughts that gave the ego a foot in the door. I started using this prayer:

God loves me very much and He will always love me. There is nothing to fear.

From here I remembered that it was not the body in need of healing, but the mind, which was in a confused state. Then I used the prayer:

Holy Spirit, I have done this, but I am ready to be healed. Please come into come into my mind and undo what I had done.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Page 202 of 268 pages ‹ First  < 200 201 202 203 204 >  Last ›

<< Back to main page of Together, We Light the Way

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.