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Manual for Teacher: A. Development of Trust P 2. 10-24-17

A. Development of Trust, P 2
2 When this power has once been experienced, it is impossible to trust one’s own petty strength again. Who would attempt to fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him? And who would place his faith in the shabby offerings of the ego when the gifts of God are laid before him? What is it that induces them to make the shift?

Journal
The power that is in us but not of us. This power is what allows the awakened mind to see through the illusion to the forgiven world. It is the power that lets an awakened mind trust the world and trust their brothers, and know the laws of the world do not mean anything.

My experience, and I think everyone’s experience has been to awaken slowly to this power. Though my awakening is not complete, I have come far enough that I seldom place my faith in the shabby offerings of the ego, and this is so different than when I started this path. It felt hard for a long time, and then it suddenly began to shift more quickly and easily and now I know I will never look back.

It was worth every bit of effort I put into this. I can only imagine how grateful I will be when the work is complete and my trust is certain. I will then accept the gifts of God with no reservations and will see the real world instead of the shabby world of the ego. Next, we are going to see what Jesus has to say about how our trust develops.

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Manual for Teacher: 4. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S TEACHERS? P 2. 10-20-17

4. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S TEACHERS? P 2
2. All differences among the Sons of God are temporary. Nevertheless, in time it can be said that the advanced teachers of God have the following characteristics:
I. Trust
1 This is the foundation on which their ability to fulfil their function rests. Perception is the result of learning. In fact, perception is learning, because cause and effect are never separated. The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. It is governed by a power that is in them but not of them. It is this power that keeps all things safe. It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world.

Journal
How many times has Jesus emphasized that all differences between the Sons of God are temporary? At least three, I think. In time, however, there are differences, and so now we are going to read about the characteristics of the advanced teachers of God. Notice that he says advanced. We are all teachers of God at times and to the degree, we are presently able to do this. But there are some who are advanced teachers and none of them started that way. They had to do the work, just as we all do. These are the characteristics they have developed.

The first of these is trust, and we are to see that this is an important characteristic as Jesus is going into a lot of detail explaining it. In fact, he says: This is the foundation on which their ability to fulfil their function rests. Teachers of God have faith in the world, not as we typically perceive it, but because they know it is not governed by the laws we made up, but by the power that is in them but not of them.

Clearly, if I am looking at the world today through my ego mind, I see chaos and suffering everywhere I look. At its best, the world according to the laws we made, no matter how good it seems at any moment, is just on its way to another disaster. But if I forgive the world, I will perceive it as the Holy Spirit perceives it. That is the power that is in me but not of me.

I am not an advanced teacher of God, though I am more advanced than I used to be. What this means for me is that I am still in the process of forgiving the world we made, watching the errors we made come undone, and I am beginning to see the real world. It is still happening bit by bit for me, with peeks beneath the veil, spots that have worn thin, that encourage me to forgive and to make forgiveness my daily goal.

Those who are advanced teachers are awakened to the truth of the world and their perception allows them to see through the illusion to the love and the beauty that is really there. This is the world without guilt and fear, and though it is still an illusion it is an illusion that is closer to the truth.

Those teachers always teach for God, and nothing the body’s eyes show them has meaning for them. Their trust is not in the illusion, but in God, and it does not waver. We will all reach this level of trust one day, and consistent practice will bring us there sooner.

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Study of Text, C 15: The End of Doubt, P 4, 10-19-17

II. The End of Doubt, P 4
4 You do not realize how much you have misused your brothers by seeing them as sources of ego support. As a result, they witness to the ego in your perception, and seem to provide reasons for not letting it go. Yet they are far stronger and much more compelling witnesses for the Holy Spirit. And they support His strength. It is, therefore, your choice whether they support the ego or the Holy Spirit in you. And you will recognize which you have chosen by their reactions. A Son of God who has been released through the Holy Spirit in a brother is always recognized. He cannot be denied. If you remain uncertain, it is only because you have not given complete release. And because of this, you have not given a single instant completely to the Holy Spirit. For when you have, you will be sure you have. You will be sure because the witness to Him will speak so clearly of Him that you will hear and understand. You will doubt until you hear one witness whom you have wholly released through the Holy Spirit. And then you will doubt no more.

Journal
I asked the Holy Spirit for an example of this so that I could understand this. He immediately brought to mind someone I used to work for. I didn’t like or trust this man. Everything he said or did reflected my dislike for him. His words to me, and his actions toward me seemed to be an attack and I did not feel safe around him. I always expected him to fire me at any moment, and each attack seemed like a preamble to that.

What I did not see at that time is that I had an ego driven attitude toward him and he was reflecting this back to me. My ego and his ego seemed to be in a pitched battle all the time. The loss of peace this caused me was too much for me to bear and so I finally decided to end the war. I asked the Holy Spirit to show me a different way to see this man. I told Him I wanted to love this man.

My intention set the stage for the Holy Spirit in me to communicate with the Holy Spirit in Him, and the only communication the Holy Spirit knows is love. Very quickly, I began to notice so many good qualities in him. I began to enjoy our conversations and I found him very easy to work with. His words seemed kind and conciliatory.

It was as Jesus said: “It is, therefore, your choice whether they support the ego or the Holy Spirit in you. And you will recognize which you have chosen by their reactions.”  Well, I certainly saw a change in communication with him. Perhaps he was always the man I came to know and I simply heard from him what I expected to hear. When I changed my mind about supporting the ego in me, how I heard his words changed. It is a lesson I am not going to quickly forget.

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Manual for Teachers 3. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S TEACHERS? P 1. 10-18-17

4. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S TEACHERS? P 1
1 The surface traits of God’s teachers are not at all alike. They do not look alike to the body’s eyes, they come from vastly different backgrounds, their experiences of the world vary greatly, and their superficial “personalities” are quite distinct. Nor, at the beginning stages of their functioning as teachers of God, have they as yet acquired the deeper characteristics that will establish them as what they are. God gives special gifts to His teachers, because they have a special role in His plan for Atonement. Their specialness is, of course, only temporary; set in time as a means of leading out of time. These special gifts, born in the holy relationship toward which the teaching-learning situation is geared, become characteristic of all teachers of God who have advanced in their own learning. In this respect they are all alike.

Journal
As Jesus says, on the surface God’s teachers are not at all alike. But there is one way in which they are alike. They have special gifts geared for their part in His plan for Atonement. The specialness is temporary, of course. It applies only in time where it is needed. Perhaps one teacher is gifted as a scribe, perhaps another as a healer.

A teacher might be a dynamic speaker and another an effective writer. A teacher might be charismatic. Another teacher might be given a special curriculum and the means to carry it out. Think of the teacher of God who has inspired you and you may see that one has a different gift. More and more we are being gifted with teachers who have awakened and they have something special to offer, each one with a different way of offering it.

The teachers of God do not begin with all of the characteristics that Jesus will tell us about, at least they are not fully developed yet. They are not perfect; they are in the process of becoming perfect. As they teach they learn and these characteristics develop further and they become advanced teachers of God. I feel blessed when I am guided to my teachers and very grateful to them for their willingness.

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Study of Text, C 15: The End of Doubt, P 3, 10-17-17

II. The End of Doubt, P 3
3 How long can it take to be where God would have you? For you are where you have forever been and will forever be. All that you have, you have forever. The blessed instant reaches out to encompass time, as God extends Himself to encompass you. You who have spent days, hours and even years in chaining your brothers to your ego in an attempt to support it and uphold its weakness, do not perceive the Source of strength. In this holy instant, you will unchain all your brothers, and refuse to support either their weakness or your own.

Journal
I seem to be in this coma dreaming I am a body among other bodies, existing for a while, vacillating between pleasure and pain, and then dying. But really, I am in God this very moment. I am studying and practicing this Course because I want to be awakened from this dream. I want to return my mind to its natural state of blissful awareness. Just as the holy instant reaches out to encompass time and thus it undoes the illusion of time, God extends Himself to encompass me and thus undoes the illusion of separate individual selves. It takes no time at all to return to our God state of awareness because there is no time. The Course gives us many ways to ease us out of our present state of delusion. Here, Jesus talks about one of those ways.

Jesus says that I chained my brothers to my ego in an attempt to uphold its weakness.  How do I do that? Here is one way I used to do that. When I was married, I used to show my husband how much he hurt me with his actions and words in an attempt to change him. This was a way that I chained him to my ego. I was teaching him that he was not enough as he was, that he had to be different to be ok. And at the same time, I was teaching myself that I needed him to uphold me, to do something to make me ok. I was making the ego stronger in my mind when I did this.

Another way I did this was to call attention to illness when it occurred in me. If I had a migraine, I would tell my kids so they could feel sorry for me and give me expressions of love. I used it in other ways as well, a way to get out of doing things I didn’t want to do, for instance. In using migraines this way, I was making the ego stronger in me and I was binding others with my ego needs and teaching them that sickness was real and could be used for the purpose of receiving love. When I recognized this behavior and stopped doing it, the migraines went away, as I had no use for them anymore.

Nowadays, I don’t do this very much, and when I do, it is subtler, and sometimes never leaves my mind. The last time I did this, I joined a support group and did the work required in that group. Then I told someone I love about what I had done. It was a way to manipulate him, to say, “Here, this is how it works, how you need to do it.” And maybe it was also to inflict a little guilt if he didn’t do it. Why did I do this? Was it for his own good? That would be the ego story, but really, it was to make my ego-self feel better about things, to stop the worry associated with ego fear. When I noticed what I was doing and saw my motive clearly, I confessed and we laughed about it. I don’t want to do anything to make the ego stronger or to bind someone to my ego. “In this holy instant you will unchain all your brothers, and refuse to support either their weakness or your own.”

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Manual for Teachers 3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 4- 10-12-17

3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 4

4 Each teaching-learning situation is maximal in the sense that each person involved will learn the most that he can from the other person at that time. In this sense, and in this sense only, we can speak of levels of teaching. Using the term in this way, the second level of teaching is a more sustained relationship, in which, for a time, two people enter into a fairly intense teaching-learning situation and then appear to separate. As with the first level, these meetings are not accidental, nor is what appears to be the end of the relationship a real end. Again, each has learned the most he can at the time. Yet all who meet will someday meet again, for it is the destiny of all relationships to become holy. God is not mistaken in His Son.

Journal
The reason we have levels of teaching is that not everyone is ready for a holy relationship at the same time. We have those brief encounters that Jesus talked about in the last paragraph, in which two people encounter each other in passing. They are not unimportant, in fact, that situation affords the two people an opportunity to learn as much as they can at that time and so the learning-teaching situation is maximal. He tells us that it is in this sense only that we speak of levels of teaching.

The second level is the more sustained relationship. This relationship lasts longer and is fairly intense, then, the two separate. I was thinking of my first two marriages. ~smile~ They didn’t last long, but they were definitely intense. I also see that we learned from each other as much as we could. It is not to say that no more could be learned from them, but it was the most that could be done by us at that time.

Even my third marriage would fit into this category. It lasted longer but it did end. However, by this time I had enough understanding to realize that it could still be healed even though we were not together and so I worked at it until that was done. This is a good thing because Jesus tells us that all who meet will someday meet again, for it is the destiny of all relationships to become holy. God is not mistaken in His Son.

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Study of Text, C 15: The End of Doubt, P 2, 10-11-17

II. The End of Doubt, P 2
2 Do not be concerned with time, and fear not the instant of holiness that will remove all fear. For the instant of peace is eternal because it is without fear. It will come, being the lesson God gives you, through the Teacher He has appointed to translate time into eternity. Blessed is God’s Teacher, Whose joy it is to teach God’s holy Son his holiness. His joy is not contained in time. His teaching is for you because His joy is yours. Through Him you stand before God’s altar, where He gently translates hell into Heaven. For it is only in Heaven that God would have you be.

Journal
I cannot, in my present state, understand eternity. That’s OK. I don’t have to understand it. It is not my part to understand eternity, nor is it my part to end time. The Holy Spirit, God’s Teacher, will translate time into eternity for me. The way I understand what is being said here is that in an instant, a very holy instant, fear will fall away with all doubt, all conflict, all uncertainty, and I will know peace.

It is interesting that Jesus says not to fear the instant of holiness that will remove all fear. Why would I be afraid of the holy instant? It offers me everything I say I want. I don’t understand this, but I accept it. I think this is why we must spend some time letting go of the false beliefs before the holy instant comes. For some time now I have been letting go of guilt and I have discovered that this false belief is deeply rooted in my consciousness.

This morning, I was doing a guided meditation on love and it began by saying that meditation takes us within. I want to go within and so I was happy to think of that, but I discovered a guilty thought guarding that door. It was an old parental guilt that I would have thought would be weak and powerless from having been looked at so many times. Yet, there it was, barring my way.

So I let the meditation have me as I offered love to that thought. It didn’t seem to be doing anything at the time, and I actually thought that this encounter prevented the meditation from being effective. But now, as I sit here writing about it, I discover that I can’t find the details of the guilty thought that just moments ago was torturing me. Maybe love dissolved it.

The mind has many thoughts of guilt and these thoughts cause us to fear the holy instant. Guilty thoughts make us feel unworthy of such blissful joy as comes with Awakening, and we become afraid to approach it. I think I am impatient for that moment, but perhaps I should be grateful for the slow process of undoing that comes before it. I don’t need to be impatient or concerned that it has not yet come. I am assured that it will.

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