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July-September,  2023

Giving Peace a Home in Our Minds

by Robert and Mary Stoelting, founders of Pathways of Light

We cannot give peace a home and believe in a world of separation from God’s oneness at the same time. We give peace a home by accepting the reality of Love’s oneness as the only Identity that exists. We give peace a home as we are willing to accept God’s Will, and not try to replace God’s Will of oneness with the belief in separation.
Conflict comes with choosing to see separation from our Identity through identifying with the body’s physical senses. As long as we insist on making what bodies do and say real, we are choosing to make peace homeless because peace and separation, like oil and water, are opposites in every way.

On Text page 76 Jesus tells us, “You are the Kingdom of Heaven, but you have let the belief in darkness enter your mind and so you need a new light. The Holy Spirit is the radiance that you must let banish the idea of darkness. His is the glory before which dissociation falls away, and the Kingdom of Heaven breaks through into its own.” (T-5.II.4:1-3)

The idea of darkness is the idea of separation from God’s Love that we let enter into our mind. The desire to get rid of peace is synonymous with the desire for separation. Getting rid of peace is the same as getting rid of God, which is where peace resides.

Because we have forgotten, Jesus reminds us of the eternal truth about ourselves and our true function: “You are the center from which [peace] radiates outward, to call the others in. You are [peace’s] home; its tranquil dwelling place from which [peace] gently reaches out, but never leaving you. If you would make [peace] homeless, how can [peace] abide within the Son of God? If [peace] would spread across the whole creation, it must begin with you, and from you reach to everyone who calls, and bring him rest by joining you.” (T-19.IV.A.1:3-6) Here we see that giving peace a home is our function because we still are the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus describes the belief in separation as it shows up in this world as, “The little barrier of sand [that] still stands between you and your brother.” (T-19.IV.A.2:4) He asks us, “Would you let a little bank of sand, a wall of dust, a tiny seeming barrier, stand between your brothers and salvation? And yet, this little remnant of attack you cherish still against your brother is the first obstacle the peace in you encounters in its going forth. This little wall of hatred would still oppose the Will of God, and keep [your awareness of peace] limited.” (T-19.IV.A.2:9-11)

It is helpful for us to understand that when we think that there really is something that is outside of us that is the cause of our distress, what we are doing is creating an obstacle to experiencing the peace that is innately ours.

Because we can choose once again, we now can learn to realize that everything that seems to be happening to us in the dream is just an effect of the false idea of separation and we can choose to let it go instead of continuing to believe in it. We don’t have to continue to make this world of separation real. We can forgive or let go of trying to make it real in our minds.

To find this quiet, we must meet these conditions: “God’s peace can never come where anger is, for anger must deny that peace exists. Who sees anger as justified in any way or any circumstance proclaims that peace is meaningless, and must believe that it cannot exist. In this condition, peace cannot be found. Therefore, forgiveness is the necessary condition for finding the peace of God.” (M-20.3:3-6)

Mary and Robert: We practice this together whenever we notice that we are getting upset about anything, like when we recently found ants in the house. We don’t need to dwell on how terrible this is or how unhappy we are about this situation. We have learned over time that when we notice that something that we see through our body’s eyes takes us out of our peace, we say to each other, “We can choose peace instead of this.”  This helps us break up the spell of making the ego stories of the world real in our mind. We stopped and went to the Holy Spirit with this. We then remembered that we could check the neighborhood website and ask how other people have solved a problem with ants in the house.

Being willing to stop, still our minds, and accept peace instead, is a reflection of our willingness to be led out of dismay or conflict. The habit of stepping back from judging our brother, or from judging what anything means in this world of separation, will bring great rewards.

Jesus points to our state of mind as the reason we appear to have problems. As long as we join with ego thoughts that project a world of separate bodies, we are in a state of mind that conflicts with the peaceful and joyful beingness of our true Self.

He tells us, “…it must also be that, in your state of mind, solution is impossible. Therefore, God must have given you a way of reaching to another state of mind in which the answer is already there. Such is the holy instant. It is here that all your problems should be brought and left. Here they belong, for here their answer is.” (T-27.IV.2:2-6)

To accept the holy instant, we must allow our mind to quiet and enter a state of peace. We must leave an open space in which the Holy Spirit can enter. “In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved.” (T-27.IV.1:1)  As we accept the Holy Spirit’s peace, we become the vehicle to extend the healing rest peace offers. We naturally extend the peace we receive to every brother, just as it was extended to us.

Jesus tells us, “And you will carry its message of love and safety and freedom to everyone who draws nigh unto your temple, where healing waits for him. You will not wait to give this, for you will call to him and he will answer you, recognizing in your call the Call for God. And you will draw him in and give him rest, as it was given you.” (T-19.IV.1:7-9)

Because of the power of our minds, we get what we focus on. Here we are seeing that it truly is worth our time to focus on accepting the peace the Holy Spirit has to offer us. It truly is worth accepting the peace of God, which is our natural inheritance.

To help with this acceptance, Jesus gives us a prayer in Lesson 205 that is priceless: “The peace of God is everything I want. The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide where I am not at home.” (W-pI.205.1:2-3)

Because we may not have fully developed the habit of accepting Holy Spirit’s peace as a constant practice, we may doubt our ability to consistently accept the peace that is inherent in our true Nature.

Jesus expresses his confidence in us when he says, “All this will you do. Yet the peace that already lies deeply within must first expand, and flow across the obstacles you placed before it. This will you do, for nothing undertaken with the Holy Spirit remains unfinished.” (T-19.IV.2:1-3)

The following is a meditation that has helped us more consistently accept the peace that is inherent in our true Nature.

MEDITATION: As you slowly read each part below, between the dots do what it says… relax and breathe it in…

Right now I quiet my mind… I take in a deep breath and relax… I allow the Holy Spirit to lead me into a peaceful state of mind… (Allow time to receive Holy Spirit’s relaxing peace…)

I give thanks because I know that peace of mind is not a small gift. It is my pathway to freedom from the tyranny of the ego.… I welcome Holy Spirit’s inspiration, which brings me an awareness of the truth about What I am and Where I am in Truth…  (allow time to receive Holy Spirit’s inspiration)…

Closing Thoughts:

We give peace a home in our minds
when we let the Holy Spirit
lift the veil to see
the Christ in every brother.

This is our only meaningful purpose on our journey of returning to the truth.

Again and again the Course reminds us not to make the error of separation real or we will remain in hell, along with our brother. We do not go Home alone.

The reason we cannot go Home alone is that in truth, we could never really be alone. We need to recognize that our brother is one with us. The truth is we are united with every brother in the Christ Mind as the one Son of God. We are joined in the one Mind of Love.

Throughout the Course Jesus talks about forgiveness and how important it is for us to look past error to the truth in every brother.

“Here is the holy place of resurrection, to which we come again; to which we will return until redemption is accomplished and received.

Join him in gladness, and remove all trace of guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind. Help him to lift the heavy burden of sin you laid upon him and he accepted as his own, and toss it lightly and with happy laughter away from him. Press it not like thorns against his brow, nor nail him to it, unredeemed and hopeless.” (T-19.IV-Di.16:1-6)

The way out of madness is not to join with it. The way out of madness is to be willing to look past illusions of differences to the real Spirit of Wholeness in every brother. This is how we heal together.

Jesus tells us, “You see his madness, which you hate because you share it…. Brother, you need forgiveness of your brother, for you will share in madness or in Heaven together. And you and he will raise your eyes in faith together, or not at all.” (T-19.IV-Di.12:5,6-8)

© 2023, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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