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Manual for Teachers 3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 3- 10-10-17

3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 3
3 It is difficult to understand that levels of teaching the universal course is a concept as meaningless in reality as is time. The illusion of one permits the illusion of the other. In time, the teacher of God seems to begin to change his mind about the world with a single decision, and then learns more and more about the new direction as he teaches it. We have covered the illusion of time already, but the illusion of levels of teaching seems to be something different. Perhaps the best way to demonstrate that these levels cannot exist is simply to say that any level of the teaching-learning situation is part of God’s plan for Atonement, and His plan can have no levels, being a reflection of His Will. Salvation is always ready and always there. God’s teachers work at different levels, but the result is always the same.

Journal
At first glance, this paragraph doesn’t seem to say anything to me. As I sit with it, I glean at least this much; levels of teaching is like time in that neither exists except in the illusion. Because I believe in time and therefore experience time, it seems that I learn and teach or teach and learn and then I learn more and finally, something happens and I wake up altogether. It seems like this all started with a decision and then unfolds over time from there.

I have just a glimpse of the truth that I only seemed to make that decision and my awakening process only seems to take place a step at a time. In actuality, there is no time and nothing of God happens gradually and at levels. It is simply done because it is His Will that it be done. My mind stretches it out and I experience it as if it is a gradual process over a period of time. How really strange this feels to a mind that is firmly attached to time and to levels.

I think the reason this is important for me to know is that it encourages me to accept that I cannot fail because I have already succeeded. It is the light at the end of this dark and confusing tunnel, and it keeps me on a straighter and narrower path than I would have taken otherwise. It also helps me to understand that my part is one of simple acceptance of what is done. Otherwise, it takes a lot longer as I try to use the ego mind to do what it is not my function to do.

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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 15: The Two Uses of Time, P 15, 10-9-17

I skipped this last paragraph in The Two Uses of Time, so I am going back to it today. We will take up in the Section II, P 2 the next time.

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 15
15 Time is your friend, if you leave it to the Holy Spirit to use. He needs but very little to restore God’s whole power to you. He Who transcends time for you understands what time is for. Holiness lies not in time, but in eternity. There never was an instant in which God’s Son could lose his purity. His changeless state is beyond time, for his purity remains forever beyond attack and without variability. Time stands still in his holiness, and changes not. And so it is no longer time at all. For caught in the single instant of the eternal sanctity of God’s creation, it is transformed into forever. Give the eternal instant, that eternity may be remembered for you, in that shining instant of perfect release. Offer the miracle of the holy instant through the Holy Spirit, and leave His giving it to you to Him.

Journal
We are in this hypnotic trance in which we think we are bodies existing in time and that we eventually die in time. It takes a lot of effort on our part to hold the truth in our mind that this is not reality. We are not in time at all but exist in eternity. To remember that this is true, we must give up the idea of the body as reality. It is only an illusion as is the rest of the world. We exist outside time and outside form.
Since we mostly believe in the body and since most of us cannot comprehend timelessness, the Holy Spirit uses what we believe in to awaken us from this surreal dream. We give Him our thinking errors and He uses time to undo them for us. The Holy Spirit isn’t making us holy; we are already holy. He is only awakening us to our holiness. There has never existed an instant in which we were not holy. We will know this when we are no longer imagining that we are in time.
We cannot wake ourselves up. We need the Holy Spirit for this. What we can do is follow His guidance, using the processes given us in A Course in Miracles to help ourselves accept what He is doing for us. We can practice the truth, and once it begins to dawn in our minds, we can protect it through daily meditation and study. One of the ways I am practicing remembering I am not a body is to deliberately take a mental step back and observing the body with detachment.
I will say to myself I am not chopping vegetables; the body/personality is doing that. I am not worried about how this body looks; the body personality is worried. My feelings are not hurt by those harsh words; the body/personality is hurt. I am unaffected by anything that is happening in the illusion. After a while, I began to achieve that sense of detachment, not just think about it. I have found this very helpful. The world is an illusion. I am not. May I always allow the Holy Spirit to use time on my behalf so that I wake up to see that there never was any time, only eternity.

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

Manual for Teachers 3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 2. 9-26-17

3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 2
2 The simplest level of teaching appears to be quite superficial. It consists of what seem to be very casual encounters; a “chance” meeting of two apparent strangers in an elevator, a child who is not looking where he is going running into an adult “by chance,” two students “happening” to walk home together. These are not chance encounters. Each of them has the potential for becoming a teaching-learning situation. Perhaps the seeming strangers in the elevator will smile to one another; perhaps the adult will not scold the child for bumping into him; perhaps the students will become friends. Even at the level of the most casual encounter, it is possible for two people to lose sight of separate interests, if only for a moment. That moment will be enough. Salvation has come.

Journal
This paragraph has made such an impact on me. I used to treat casual strangers as if they did not exist. I looked away from them. When they were waiting on me, I acted like they were machines performing a function. After reading this paragraph, I saw what I was doing and it changed everything.

I still get wrapped up in my little story sometimes and fail to notice an opportunity for salvation, but I make a point to not do that. I have started thinking of everyone in my life as a potential for a holy encounter, a chance to put aside my separate interests, if even for a moment, and acknowledge our oneness with at least a smile.

At first, it was just a thing I did, but as my mind healed more and more, it has become a blessing that I bestow and receive. It is not just a gesture, but a real connection. When I fail to take advantage of that chance encounter, I regret the lost opportunity. I understand now, that it just seemed like a chance encounter. It was really a gift that I either accepted or rejected.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, C 15: The End of Doubt, P 1, 10-5-17

II. The End of Doubt, P 1
1 The Atonement is in time, but not for time. Being in you, it is eternal. What holds remembrance of God cannot be bound by time. No more are you. For unless God is bound, you cannot be. An instant offered to the Holy Spirit is offered to God on your behalf, and in that instant you will awaken gently in Him. In the blessed instant you will let go all your past learning, and the Holy Spirit will quickly offer you the whole lesson of peace. What can take time, when all the obstacles to learning it have been removed? Truth is so far beyond time that all of it happens at once. For as it was created one, so its oneness depends not on time at all.

Journal
In this paragraph, Jesus is sharing with us some difficult concepts, difficult because they are unlike what we experience now. He is telling us that we are given the Atonement in time where it is useful to us, but it has nothing to do with time, being Itself eternal. The Atonement holds the memory of God and nothing with that memory can be bound by time. This is good news because that memory is in us and so we are eternal as well, and cannot be bound by time.

He also talks about the holy Instant as one that is offered to the Holy Spirit. He says that when we offer that moment to the Holy Spirit who offers it to God on our behalf, in that instant we will awaken gently in Him. I have done this many times, this offering the moment to the Holy Spirit, and I don’t seem to have gone past all learning, and I don’t seem to have received the whole lesson of peace.

And yet it must be true. This is why Jesus explains the relationship between the Atonement and time and eternity. In eternity, where we are, the moment was offered and the world fell away. We exist with and in God in perfect bliss. It was instantaneous because there is no time to traverse in eternity. In time, where we think we are, the answer unfolds gently and seems to span time, years usually.

It is all part of the illusion that includes the world and time and space. So we are both awake and waking up depending on your perspective, but there is only one truth, and in truth, we are awake in God because there is only God. I have been practicing shifting my awareness from the world. In this practice, I have had brief instances of something closer to my reality than life as if I am a body. This is possible because it is actually the truth right now. Shift your focus from the body and you will shift into reality, or as close to reality as you are ready for.

© 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 14, 10-4-17

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 14
14 How long is an instant? As long as it takes to re-establish perfect sanity, perfect peace and perfect love for everyone, for God and for yourself. As long as it takes to remember immortality, and your immortal creations who share it with you. As long as it takes to exchange hell for Heaven. Long enough to transcend all of the ego’s making, and ascend unto your Father.

Journal
I suppose that from my point of view, mired in time/space, it takes a long time to reach that holy instant. I have spent over half of my life, 36 years, deciding that I want to be what I am. In reality, it seems, no time at all has passed. I cannot be other than what I am and everything to the contrary is a dream, an illusion, and never existed at all.

I am not anxious to awaken, but I am determined to awaken and I long to awaken. I want to leave behind this dream experience, and live as I was created to live. I sometimes get frustrated with myself when I ask the ego self to decide for me. But I am also aware that this doesn’t happen as much and that I change my mind fairly quickly now when it does.

In fact, even in the smallest things, I am learning to turn away from the thinking mind and allow myself to be led by the truest part of me. For instance, I was making my bed a few minutes ago and thinking that I want to listen to a teacher while I clean my house. Then I thought about it being Tuesday and my daughter is probably going to call me to visit with her.

I began to go over the pros and cons and to feel uneasy as I did it. Then I caught myself and I changed my mind. I am surrendered to my higher self, and to life as it plays out. I am going to do what comes next and I look forward to seeing how that unfolds. I am not going to fight life today. Instead, I am going to watch it and let the Holy Spirit direct it and interpret it for me.

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

Manual for Teachers 2. WHO ARE THEIR PUPILS? P 5- 10-2-17

2. WHO ARE THEIR PUPILS? P 5
5 When pupil and teacher come together, a teaching-learning situation begins. For the teacher is not really the one who does the teaching. God’s Teacher speaks to any two who join together for learning purposes. The relationship is holy because of that purpose, and God has promised to send His Spirit into any holy relationship. In the teaching-learning situation, each one learns that giving and receiving are the same. The demarcations they have drawn between their roles, their minds, their bodies, their needs, their interests, and all the differences they thought separated them from one another, fade and grow dim and disappear. Those who would learn the same course share one interest and one goal. And thus he who was the learner becomes a teacher of God himself, for he has made the one decision that gave his teacher to him. He has seen in another person the same interests as his own.

Journal
We are reminded that all it takes to become a teacher of God is that we see in another person the same interests as our own. So when we come together to study the Manual for Teachers as we are doing now, we are sharing the same interest. We put aside our apparent differences, all that seems to separate us, in this coming together. Your interest is the same as mine and mine the same as yours and so we are both teachers of God.

What comes through me comes from the Teacher. This Teacher is the real teacher. What comes from you comes from this same Teacher of God. Coming together like this creates a holy relationship and guarantees His presence in it. You may not say anything aloud in response to what is said in this writing, but within your mind much is happening.

A shift, sometimes immediate, sometimes slowly, occurs. Perhaps it has something to do with what is written here, or maybe not. Maybe it is simply the joining for one purpose that opens the mind to healing. The same is true for me. I might take on the role of teaching, but I am the student receiving the teaching. I am the student receiving the healing from what comes through, and sometimes from responses that open me to another way to see. But always, I receive as I give and as I join in the giving.

© 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 13, 9-29-17

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 13
13 How long is an instant? It is as short for your brother as it is for you. Practice giving this blessed instant of freedom to all who are enslaved by time, and thus make time their friend for them. The Holy Spirit gives their blessed instant to you through your giving it. As you give it, He offers it to you. Be not unwilling to give what you would receive of Him, for you join with Him in giving. In the crystal cleanness of the release you give is your instantaneous escape from guilt. You must be holy if you offer holiness.

Journal
Clearly, the way to happiness and to freedom is to give love and forgiveness every chance we have. If someone says or does something unkind, I can defend myself and join them in a hell of our own making, or I can forgive the entire idea and see them as temporarily confused but unharmed by that confusion. They remain in my mind the holy being they always have been and always will be.

There was a time that this was just a concept I wanted to believe. I did understand why it was true but I wanted to feel that way about everyone. It never quite made it from my head to my heart. In the journey, it got tangled up and turned into something else. I would feel like a victim being trampled because it wasn’t spiritual for me to defend myself, and mostly, I just felt resentful.

Things have shifted since then. For the most part, the distance from head to heart has shortened and is usually almost instantaneous. When I slip into the old way of thinking, I don’t stay there long. I want everyone to be innocent. I want to see the true brilliance of every brother. I am happy to see that they are not affected by their temporary insanity and neither am I.

How long does this take? An instant, maybe. And if it takes longer, I know that each time I choose to see what is real about my brother, I shorten the time it takes and I do this for us all. Here is something that I know Jesus said this was going to happen, but it was still something of a surprise; I love myself more now. I believe in myself, and I believe in my innocence much more than I did before. It seems that it is true, as I forgive my brother, I forgive myself. As I free my brother, I free myself.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.