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May-August, 2024

Quiet Above the Battleground

by Rev. Bill Poppa, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

In developing a forgiving mindset, the ego-self resists by not raising to question long-held beliefs about “Who” and “What” I am.

Moreover, my ego personality self does not even question whether the outside material world is the essence of reality. This unconscious bypass is a veil for my True Self to extend outward the peace deep within me to embrace all the Sonship.

My True Self is the Christ Mind and is an extension of God’s Love as Spirit, which is abundant, eternal, and complete joy. The True Self, the Sacred Self, is “Who” I am, and the one Son of God is “What” I am.

How can I receive what is my true inheritance as the Son of God if I do not accept all that I am? This question of identity is a critical aspect of forgiveness. It begins to focus my mind with the intent of waking up from a dream of separation.

If I mindlessly continue to identify as my ego personality self, I will have little to no opportunity to remember I am as God created me — completely innocent.

Identifying as an ego-self, I experience constant change, a never-ending sense of lack, fear of losing what I have accumulated, and an ongoing defense against a world with strife and unknown threats. It is a world whose laws of casualty are trapped in time. It is a world of unfaltering beginnings and endings.

The Course views Reality as composed only of God’s thoughts, which are loving, constant, timeless, and eternal.

Sin, guilt, and fear are mere misperceptions. Sin is described as a lack of love or a mistake. Because it is only a mistake, it calls for love and correction rather than guilt and punishment. When I stand as Spirit, I understand and accept that I am already Spirit and solely Spirit. I am not human but an extension of God’s perfect Love. My body is not “Who” or “What” I am. It serves instead as a communication device for Holy Spirit.

By staying above the battleground, I experience gentleness within my mind. There is a stillness that takes hold, and my mind is quiet.

It is a calm only my Inner Teacher can lead me to. It is an excellent remembering, and I learn with each Holy Instant that I have a power I never knew I had as I begin to consolidate trust in Holy Spirit.

My Inner Guide illuminates trust in the only power available to me, the ability to choose again how I perceive the world as a Son of God.

In chapter 28 of the text, Jesus says,

“The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant and is still. It reaches gently from that quiet time, and from the mind it healed in quiet then, to other minds to share its quietness. Their own remembering is quiet now, and what has come to take its place will not be wholly unremembered afterwards.” (T-28.I.11:1-2,5)

Jesus speaks of the importance of cultivating a quiet mind in this passage and even suggests that linear time is non-existent in the effect of a miracle worker.

It is Holy Spirit, not ego, that does the work in quieting the mind in this unspeakable peace.

To be sure, the ego has its version of peace as well. But its interpretation relies on temporary rest for the body or perhaps a change of scenery.

It always focuses on form and anything outside the mind as a solution. The ego does not comprehend eternal peace for the Son, for the ego’s meaningless private thoughts continue to intrude like a lousy habit drawing the mind’s attention into the world.

Jesus wants us to regard these ego thoughts as an opportunity to forgive. We can be thankful for these meaningless thoughts if we learn to give them as a gift to Holy Spirit. He will return them to us as miracles instead.

Finally, in lesson 132, entitled “I loose the world from all I thought it was,” Jesus instructs us this way: “Begin the fifteen-minute periods in which we practice twice today with this: ‘I who remain as God created me would loose the world from all I thought it was. For I am real because the world is not, and I would know my own reality.

Then merely rest, alert but with no strain, and let your mind in quietness be changed so that the world is freed, along with you.’” (W-132.15:1-4)

This particular lesson is a great forgiveness practice, and it leads my mind to God’s Love as one.

It is also a great lesson in quieting the mind, and it is in that quiet that my mind can stay above the battleground.

© 2024, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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