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January-March, 2013

Excerpts from Rev. Myron Jones Healing Journal — Together We Light the Way

by Rev. Myron Jones, O.M.C.

Note from Robert & Mary: We would like to highlight excerpts from the very practical, helpful and inspiring Healing Journal that Rev. Myron Jones writes daily on the Pathways of Light website. In her journal Myron works with both the daily lessons of A Course in Miracles and then the Text. Click here to go to her journal.

A Morning Prayer and an Opportunity to Use It

My mind is full of prayer this morning. Father, as I do this work, please help me to remember that there is nothing outside my mind and therefore all healing is done in my mind. Please help me to resist the desire to find someone else to blame and to remember that there is no one else. Amen

I had an opportunity to put this prayer to work early this morning. Right before I left for work, my brother called me to say he had bad news.

I bought a house recently and there were a few things to do to get it ready to move in. One of those things was to replace the roof. My brother has been overseeing the projects and he got the shingles and other things needed for a roof delivered to my house at 9 a.m. on Saturday. At 10 a.m., the roofers showed up to work through the weekend, and the tiles were gone. In that one hour in broad daylight someone had stolen them. So I have to buy them all over again. I think its around $2,500-$3,000.

After the initial surprise I realized that someone took my money but my peace is not for sale. I cannot change what has happened and I’m not going to worry about it. It will work out.

Later as I was leaving for work, I was closing the door behind me and looked back to see the things in my house. I had the thought that someone could take them, too. I cannot live like that. There is nothing in my home that is worth my peace. I let that go, too.

As I thought about having to buy the shingles again, I had a couple of stressful feelings that I gave to the Holy Spirit. I asked that He heal my mind and that He tell me what He wants me to know about this.

The thought that came to me is that as long as I hold the belief in loss and lack in my mind, this kind of thing will continue to happen. A belief held in the mind is like a prayer and all prayers are answered. So I asked that my mind be healed of the belief in anything that God did not create and He did not create lack or loss.

I could easily have seen this situation as something done to me by someone else. I could have seen myself as a victim and the thief as guilty. I am so glad I began the morning with this prayer. It was like a beacon light that guided my mind to the helpful answer.  ❦

Note: In her Healing Journal, you will find Myron’s perspectives on the ACIM Workbook for Students and currently she is going through each section of the Text of A Course in Miracles. Below are her insights regarding paragraphs 3-4 on page 19 of the Text which she posted on December 27 and 28th, 2012.

II The Atonement as Defense

¶3.) You can defend truth as well as error. The means are easier to understand after the value of the goal is firmly established. It is a question of what it is for. Everyone defends his treasure, and will do so automatically. The real questions are, what do you treasure, and how much do you treasure it? Once you have learned to consider these questions and to bring them into all your actions, you will have little difficulty in clarifying the means. The means are available whenever you ask. You can, however, save time if you do not protract this step unduly. The correct focus will shorten it immeasurably.

In this paragraph I am being encouraged to set my goal and give it my attention. This will save time and that is what I ultimately want to do. In fact, I want to end time. Here is how I am doing this. I began, like most people, just hoping to find a way to live that was not so painful. A Course in Miracles seemed to help me do that.

I discovered through the Course and Course-related books like, Inner Healing by Dan Joseph, simple but effective ways to watch my mind and allow my perception to be corrected and brought nearer the truth. Then in books like NTI and Teachings of the Inner Ramana, I learned more about turning away from the chatter of the ego mind.

While this was happening, I made a significant change. I realized that when Jesus talked about defending my treasure, he meant that I would defend the thoughts that mean the most to me. It seems I would have noticed that a lot sooner since he talks about it right here in Chapter 2, but I guess I was not ready to see this for a while. But once I did see it, and realized I wanted it, I asked myself what exactly it was that I treasure, and if my present treasure was going to get me what I really want.

It was easy to see that I treasured a lot of things that were not bringing me peace. I would defend my right to be happy and that was not working for me. I would defend my right to decide for myself, and to make plans on my own. These treasures were not making me happy either. Sometimes I would defend against the ego, but sometimes I would defend against God. It was like shuffling in place, only once in a while taking a step forward.

I saw that I needed a goal, a purpose, something that would be a guiding force in my life. I began to pay special attention to the lessons about my function. In Lesson 61, Jesus says this. “How holy are you who have the power to bring peace to every mind!” He then says: “You are indeed the light of the world with such a function.” What is he talking about, this lofty function? He says that it is my forgiveness that does this. And he encourages me to accept no trivial purpose in its place.

When I watch my mind for ego thoughts and ask that they be corrected and the mind be healed, this is what I am doing. I am remembering that my function is forgiveness. I forgive the beliefs I have held dear but that have hurt me. I did this in the beginning for Myron so that she would have a happier life, but I soon realized that the purpose is to save the world. Each time I do this, I bring peace to every mind.

This is a treasure worth defending. I defend it by choosing forgiveness every chance I get. Because I have decided on my one goal, which is to awaken from the dream of separation, which is the same thing as forgiving the world I made, it has become easy to choose what I would defend. Now I simply notice if the choice I am considering is going to bring me closer to my one goal, or bring me deeper into the illusion.

How to do the forgiveness work is not something I have ever had to figure out. I choose forgiveness as my one function and the means are provided, just as Jesus said they would be. As I make that choice, the Holy Spirit places before me everything I need to make it possible. I find, without effort, every book, every teacher, every inspirational word that will help me. I am directed by the Voice within what to do next, where to go, what to say.

An objection the ego has is that forgiving the world one thought at a time doesn’t feel very lofty. The ego doesn’t feel like a super hero. Saving the world seems to the ego like it ought to have more of a pay-off, that being savior of the world should add to its sense of specialness and this is not what is happening. In fact, it doesn’t feel like much is happening for long stretches of time, and when it does change, the ego notices a loss of specialness instead of an increase in what it most craves.

Later in the Text, Jesus will help us understand that the ego doesn’t know the difference between pain and pleasure. For instance, the ego thinks that specialness is pleasure, when really it is a source of pain. This is why there was confusion for me at first, when I thought nothing much was coming of all this work. But I trusted Jesus and kept at it, remembering my one goal, remembering my one function, and I began to have a peace-filled life.

Now I lose my peace at times, but not often and not for long. Now I know that peace is what I want and I know that nothing else comes close, so the means to regain that peace are available to me as soon as I am ready to return to peace. I also understand that I share one mind with all my brothers and so as I choose peace for myself, I am choosing it for us all. ❦

December 27th —  ¶4.) The Atonement is the only defense that cannot be used destructively because it is not a device you made. The Atonement principle was in effect long before the Atonement began. The principle was love and the Atonement was an act of love. Acts were not necessary before the separation, because belief in space and time did not exist. It was only after the separation that the Atonement and the conditions necessary for its fulfillment were planned. Then a defense so splendid was needed that it could not be misused, although it could be refused. Refusal could not, however, turn it into a weapon of attack, which is the inherent characteristic of other defenses. The Atonement thus becomes the only defense that is not a two-edged sword. It can only heal. (T-2.II.4)

I had a really hard time understanding Atonement as used in the Course. For years I have kept the Glossary-Index (by Kenneth Wapnick) nearby so I could look it up again and remind myself of its meaning. The meaning would not stick, and now I know that this is because for a long time I was so conflicted about what I wanted that there were some things in the Course I refused to understand.

Jesus explains to us here that Atonement in principle is Love, and he says that it was in effect long before the Atonement began. The way he explains it is that the Atonement is an act of love and that before the separation there was no need for acts since space and time did not exist.

Perhaps one of the reasons I had trouble with this explanation, even though it is simple, is that I had so little understanding of love. I still believed in the love concept as it exists in the illusion and love from the ego point of view is, at it’s best, selfish, unreliable and conditional, and at it’s worst, destructive.

Later Jesus speaks of the Atonement as undoing separation and this was the explanation that stuck with me. Now when I read the word Atonement, I automatically substitute the word undoing. But isn’t that love? Isn’t undoing the ego an act of love? It is Love being itself, transforming what we have done simply through the power of being its self. Because I still have so little understanding of love, I still find the word undoing more useful to me, but I must be growing in my understanding because while I can’t seem to find words for it, I do understand more than before.

The next thing he says about Atonement is that it cannot be misused. I cannot use the Atonement to hurt myself or others. I certainly cannot say that about any other defense that I am familiar with. If I defend myself against pain that I perceive as coming from another, my defense will be hurtful in many ways. I will separate myself from that person which is the thing that causes all suffering to begin with. Even if I keep our bodies in contact, in my mind I have separated us into victim and victimizer, so the harm is done.

The most significant experience I have had with love undoing the ego was with my ex-husband. We had a very contentious relationship, especially at the end, and I was very glad to finally walk away from it. I didn’t feel there was anything else I could do at that time to heal the marriage and I was tired of suffering through it. But I was very surprised to realize that I could not leave the relationship.

I understand now that all relationships must be healed and the proximity of the two bodies involved is not important.

While I was still in the process of forgiving myself and him and the relationship, it seemed very hard. But doing this work helped me to see that it was only hard when I tried to do it from the ego mind.

The ego was only interested in defense through attack. When I finally surrendered the whole thing to Spirit, Love did its thing, and all the animosity fell away like it was nothing. Which is what it was.

When I was still trying to undo with the ego it felt very complicated. Guilt confused everything. I would think of something he did or said and I just wanted to protect myself from ever experiencing that again. Then I would think of something I did or said, and I wanted to be far from him because his presence triggered the memory of my guilty act.

There was so much projection in an attempt to protect myself from my feelings of guilt that I could not begin to unravel it all. I spent a lot of time rejecting the Atonement but my rejection didn’t cause me any harm. Not accepting it prolonged my suffering, but did not hurt either of us. This could not be said of my ego defenses, which clearly caused pain for us both.

It all changed, though, when I realized that all I wanted was peace. I wanted to forgive and I didn’t want anything else. I didn’t want to protect myself or hide myself anymore and so I didn’t need him to be my scapegoat.

In that moment of surrender Love cleansed me and purified my mind. I did nothing but say yes. I don’t know if I will ever, while in this illusory state of mind, understand Love, but I have learned to trust it.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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