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July - September, 2009

Christ Vision

by Rev. Myron Jones

I open my heart to You, Holy Spirit, and invite You in. I ask for Your guidance. I gladly step back and let You lead the way. Holy Spirit, help each of us to receive from this article whatever it is we most need. Amen

I never write or teach or counsel without first stepping back and setting the intention to allow the Holy Spirit to lead. Sometimes I become enamored with the sound of my own voice and forget to listen, but am getting good at recognizing when this happens and then deciding to stop. Not perfect yet, but definitely better.

The first paragraph in Lesson 158 of A Course in Miracles says, “What has been given you? The knowledge that you are a mind, in Mind and purely mind, sinless forever, wholly unafraid, because you were created out of Love. Nor have you left your Source, remaining as you were created. This was given you as knowledge which you cannot lose. It was given as well to every living thing, for by that knowledge only does it live.”
The knowledge that you are a mind, in Mind. This lesson begins by establishing with great clarity that I am not all I have identified with. I am not body, emotions, personality. I am not seeker, student, mother, teacher. I am mind in Mind. I am Son of God and I exist in God. As Son of God, I am sinless and unafraid because I am as God created me. I have never lost this knowledge and can never lose it. As this paragraph says, knowledge was given to every living thing, for by that knowledge only does it live. So I live, therefore I Know.

The philosopher got it wrong when he said, “I think therefore I am.” I know therefore I am. There is a distinct difference. Thinking is what the ego does. Thinking is a process whereby we gather information, label it (that is, give it meaning according to our desires), organize it and store it for use in the future. We use the brain to perform this function.

It is in using the thinking mind that I give all the meaning to each thing that it has for me. It is not truth, but perception. The truth of something never changes or varies in anyway, but perception is fluid and therefore unreliable.

I have been married and divorced three times. I have gathered lots of information about relationships. I have decided what all this information means and have organized it in different ways within the brain. When someone asks me a question about their relationship, if I turn to the thinking mind for the answer, it will pull up the file marked relationships, find the sub category most like the experience of the questioner, and give the answer found there.

The answer won’t be truth, because it was never based on truth, but always on perception. The answer, whether to someone else about their relationship, or to myself about a present relationship, is always a perception based on past experience. I am always bringing the past into the present. What do you think I will get in the future? The same as I got in the past? Right.

We do not have to continue chasing our tails, running in circles repeating the same story over and over. Even when we change the form of the story, the content remains the same. This is insane behavior; doing the same thing over and over in the hopes that the result will one day change.

How do we step out of this insanity? Ego thinks. Spirit knows. That is all we have to remember. What shall I do? What shall I say? Where shall I go? Having spent literally thousands of years listening to the ego’s answer and watching more of nothing happening, I am learning to ask a different teacher. This is simple to do. I ask. I listen.

What makes it seem hard is that I like writing my own stories. It gives me a sense of control. I am the author of myself. I place high value on intelligence and my ability to think and figure things out. I completely ignore the fact that it doesn’t work. It has never worked and it will never work because I am simply repeating the past over and over while dressing it in different costumes so that I can pretend it is different.

In the meantime, I don’t know what peace is. How could I know? I have never experienced it. I have only experienced less anxiety and more anxiety, and overwhelming anxiety. Even when the anxiety level is so low, I hardly notice it and I think I am happy. There is the little niggling thought that this won’t last. And, of that one thing, I am right.

None of this is necessary. In my mind is knowledge. It is whole and complete. Nothing is missing, ever. There is never a moment when there is something I do not know. It is through the Holy Spirit that I am learning to access that knowledge. It is through the Holy Spirit that knowledge flows into my awareness. This happens automatically if I do not block that flow with my desire to create my own knowing.

Here is a little process you can use to see this in your own life. Write down a question you are facing in your life. It doesn’t have to be a major issue. Perhaps you have to decide whether you want to stay in your present job or move on. Maybe you just can’t decide what to eat for lunch. It doesn’t matter. Just think of a question you haven’t completely decided on.

Now ask your self, your small self, the ego thinking mind, what the answer should be. Notice how this works in your mind. Notice the process the thinking mind uses. For instance, if I am trying to decide if I should fly out to see my daughter in California or if I should save my money for unexpected expenditures, if I work this out in my mind, I am going to be conflicted.

If I go see my daughter that will make me happy, but it will also worry me because money is tight right now, the economy is uncertain. How do I know this? Well I have lots of bits of info stored away. I have visited my daughter and know how much fun that is and how happy I am to spend time with her. I have also been reading the papers and know how uncertain the economy is. But if I stay home, I will be disappointed because I miss my daughter. I feel frozen in place. No matter which I choose…. I lose.

So think about your question, noticing the steps you go through. Notice where the information comes from that you use to make the decision as you work out your answer. After you have done this, talk to the Holy Spirit about this same question. Become quiet and ask Him to lead you to the answer which will be most helpful to you at this moment. Be careful not to allow the thinking mind to take over. Simply ask and receive your answer.

When I do this, I quiet the mind and relax the body. I say something like this: “Holy Spirit, I gladly set aside the answers I think would make me happy and I open my heart to you. This is the question…” I tell Him all about it and then I await the answer in patience and in trust. Holy Spirit will always give the answer that is helpful in the world, but that does not keep me in the world.

The answer which would best serve you is always there. All knowledge is always there. To access that knowledge you need only be willing to set aside the desire to find your own answer. Surrender your story and be willing to step back and allow the Holy Spirit to bring His answer to you. It will always be an answer which serves you and everyone else involved.

In Lesson 158 we are also told, “Christ’s vision has one law. It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin. It sees no separation. And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings and all events, without the slightest fading of the light it sees.” (W-pI.158.7)

Both Regina Dawn Akers and Byron Katie talk about something that made a world of difference to me. Katie put it like this. She said that no one has ever met another person. They have only met their own thoughts. And the Course tells us those thoughts we see projected onto the other person are really about ourselves.

Imagine you are looking at me. There is a glass in front of me and on that glass you have painted your thoughts. All that you can see when you look at me is that painting, and since it is a painting of your thoughts, you are really looking at yourself. Most people, however, choose to see that image as if it were the other person. Other people can become the receptacles for that which we don’t want to see in ourselves.

What happens if you clear away the painting of your thoughts, your projections? As you do so you look through that glass and what do you think you will see? You will see Christ. Turn to your neighbor and behold Christ. Everywhere you turn there is Christ. There is only Christ. There is nothing else to see unless you disguise Christ by painting over him with your fearful and guilty thoughts.

Looking through the clear glass as if it were not there and seeing Christ is what the Course refers to as Vision. When you see Christ it is because you are Christ — so you are using Christ Vision to behold your brother, who must also be Christ as there is only one of us. Vision is true seeing. It is the overlooking of all ego behavior and seeing the only thing that is real; what God created. This is undoing the ego, and it is forgiveness. This is love.

The Holy Spirit (Christ Mind) brings us to the truth about Love’s oneness and the fact that everyone is still Love and nothing else, no matter what dreams they dream. The Holy Spirit helps us see beyond our fantasies and shadows. The Holy Spirit takes our wandering thoughts and brings them into alignment with God. He brings us from time to what is eternally true.  (From Pathways of Light course Christ Consciousness)

© 2009, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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