Miracles News

April-June, 2020

My Mind Is Very Holy

by Rev. Myron Jones, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

I love doing the lessons and I do them every year just for the pure joy of it. The holiness lessons are my favorite. I wonder if anyone just starting this path, doing these lessons for the first time, believes their mind is very holy or even understands how that could be.

The implication of the lesson is astounding. This year I have a new understanding and I am far more willing to accept it than I ever have been before. My heart is filled with gratitude for this.

The self I experience is just an image I have made. The body, the personality, all of what I think of as Myron is an image, not something real. Jesus makes it clear to my mind that he does not mean this metaphorically when he says that I cannot really see the world because I am looking through the eyes of the image of a body I made, and images cannot see.

Having established that I made an image of a body/personality, I see that I then made an image of an environment that was made to protect the image of the self I made. How perfect this plan to experience a separate self, something completely impossible, and yet accomplished, if not in reality then at least in experience! So, I asked myself, “What does this look like for me? What was my desire and how did I accomplish it?”

From looking at my life with the advantage of years of experience, I see that I wanted to see myself as if I could be a victim, filled with self-doubt, guilt, and fear. I also wanted to see myself as a person determined to overcome, someone who would keep moving right through her terror, even when she was nearly overwhelmed with guilt and self-loathing.

I look back at my life and I see the images that make up the environment I made to protect this self. Early on, when still a child, I had many experiences of victimhood that taught me to see all situations from the viewpoint that I am a victim. My father was an alcoholic and probably bipolar as well. My mother had made an image of herself that had many of the same attributes I had chosen so she modeled that for me and reinforced those choices in my mind.

I experienced molestation and poverty as a child, as well as constant instability in the family environment. All these situations helped establish and protect my desire to see myself as a victim with low self-esteem, going through life in fear of what could and probably would happen next. Once the theme was firmly established it continued to play out with many experiences that reinforced it.

I also had a mother who protected her children with the ferocity of a mother bear, and who instilled a sense of grandiosity that helped to balance the sense of worthlessness. She also modeled what it looks like to move steadily through adversity with determination and with pride, which though threatened, remained intact. She proved we could overcome if we just kept going and believed in our innate ability to do so. I got it all set up to have the desired experience.

My life was filled with experiences that continued to fulfill the original intent.If seen with detachment as if it were a movie, it would be a pretty interesting one. Interesting, that is, if you enjoy lots of drama and emotional moments in your movies. I am learning to see this life as if it is, indeed, a movie because that is closer to the truth than believing it is real.

I can see how important it was that I have my own little story if believing in separation and specialness is my goal. As long as that remained my goal, I would continue to pump out more proof I am different than and more special in both good and bad ways than others. But I have changed my mind about that.

A Course in Miracles has convinced me that all of this, all of the life of Myron, is really just a pretty good (or maybe bad, with all its melodrama) movie and that I am not Myron in any real sense. Today I am reminded of what I really am. I am part of God. I am very holy.

As I have allowed my mind to be healed of the belief in separation, I have begun to embrace this reality, this Self that exists as part of God, that lives in God, that is very holy. How different will be the images that I make as this new true vision of myself continues to unfold.

This is not something that can be accomplished through the thinking mind. Yes, the Holy Spirit works to heal the mind on my behalf and this makes it possible for me to accept the emergence of the memories of reality. But accepting my true identity seems to be a function of my heart. The healing of the mind convinces me I want to remember, but the desire that awakens is a function of the heart.

We will each awaken and remember our holiness and the reason is very simple. First of all, it is the Will of God that we do so and only in our most outlandish imaginings could we think that we can overcome the Will of God. In actuality, we are already awake. I know this is not apparent in the stories we live, but it must be true because Jesus tells us that we are as God created us. Nothing has changed that and nothing ever could.

So, where is this awakened Self? Here is how I think of it. You know how sometimes you have fantasies in which your wishes are played out? Maybe you imagine you won the lottery and you think of what you would do with all that money and how it would change your life. You might have a very elaborate story in your mind that could go on for quite a while as you think of what you would buy and who you would help.

Or maybe you have a fantasy of meeting the perfect partner and what it would be like to be with that one. If you are an athlete perhaps you have imagined being the winner and people admiring you, other athletes showing their respect. Perhaps it goes on longer and you see yourself signing contracts and sponsors wanting your picture or name on their product.

Most of us have had fantasies at one time or another in our lifes. When I was a teenager, I imagined myself a famous singer. This had to remain a fantasy since I can’t carry a tune, but it was one of my favorite ways to pass the time and it often became elaborate. So, where was Myron, the ordinary teenager, when I was dreaming of being adored by the crowds at my concerts? That person didn’t disappear when the fantasy person was in my mind.

This is a metaphor for us as we experience our life right now. Myron the teenager and Myron the adult is just as much a fantasy as Myron the famous singer that I used to dream of. And all the time I imagine the story of Myron, with her lifetime of sometimes interesting and sometimes punishing stories, the true Self is right there, simply unacknowledged.

The problem is that we are aware of only those things we give our attention to. I think this is why the Course focuses so strongly on the purification of the mind. It is the fantasy thoughts that we pay attention to that make up the world we see. As long as we are interested in these thoughts, we will continue to see this world and believe in it.

When I was dreaming of being the famous singer, I remained the teenager and while I imagined I was a teenager I continued to be the fully awakened Self in the Mind of God. It is all here, all part of the package and we can all learn to focus our attention on the awakened Self, the unaffected Self that remains as God created it without interruption, without change.

The more we give our ego thoughts to the Holy Spirit and turn our attention to the truth, the clearer the Self becomes to us. It is all just a matter of desire and practice. These lessons are more important than we could have imagined when we began them. They are clearing the mind of the darkness that hides the Light within and bringing us back to the knowledge of our holiness.

Rev. Myron Jones, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Westlake, Louisiana. Read her inspiring Healing Journal articles on the Pathways website. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Myron’s website is: http://www.forgivenessisthewayhome.org

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