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Study of Manual for Teachers 4-23-12

Day 113
19. WHAT IS JUSTICE?
1 Justice is the divine correction for injustice. Injustice is the basis for all the judgments of the world. Justice corrects the interpretations to which injustice gives rise, and cancels them out. Neither justice nor injustice exists in Heaven, for error is impossible and correction meaningless. In this world, however, forgiveness depends on justice, since all attack can only be unjust. Justice is the Holy Spirit’s verdict upon the world. Except in His judgment justice is impossible, for no one in the world is capable of making only just interpretations and laying all injustices aside. If God’s Son were fairly judged, there would be no need for salvation. The thought of separation would have been forever inconceivable.

The ego is absolutely certain that life is unfair. I hear these thoughts that seem to prove injustice exists. Some of them I have believed myself.
  I work hard, and my lazy neighbor gets taken care of by my tax dollars.
  I was a good wife/husband and look what it got me.
  I suffered to bring that ungrateful child into the world.
  I didn’t do anything wrong and I got blamed anyway.
  I work and work on healing my mind and then this joker gets a spontaneous awakening for which he does nothing. How is that fair?

Looking at appearances it seems apparent that life is unjust. And if I use my ego thinking mind to judge what I see I will always come down on the side of injustice. This is why I was given the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, which does not see separate people struggling against each other, but sees only one Son of God waking up, judges truly.

I was reading in NTI on this very thing. Here is a passage that helped me to grasp this idea more strongly.

  You may trust in your brothers’ perfection and lay your judgments aside, and that will be to accept my invitation. Or you may be distracted by your judgments and choose to trust them instead. It is your choice.

It is so simple, isn’t it? I have the thought that a circumstance is unjust. I ask to see this differently and the Holy Spirit reminds me that my brother is perfect as he was created by God, that my brother is innocent as am I. Immediately I feel better, because now I am resting in the truth that I am not split off, but whole.

But then I think about the situation again and become distracted by my judgments, and if I think, I will always judge because that is what thinking was made for. I can return to peace and to truth only by letting go of my thinking and welcoming knowledge. That is why Jesus tells us that only the Holy Spirit can show us justice. He says,

  … for no one in the world is capable of making only just interpretations and laying all injustices aside.

There is no reason to feel guilty for our interpretations, because as he says here, we are not capable of doing otherwise. What we can do is rightly discount the judgmental thoughts in our mind and ask for an interpretation of One Who can judge truly. And when we become distracted by the judgments, return once again to the truth. The one thing that is true is that we are all innocent, and there is no injustice, just the appearance of injustice.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 4-22-12

Day 112
4 In order to heal, it thus becomes essential for the teacher of God to let all his own mistakes be corrected. If he senses even the faintest hint of irritation in himself as he responds to anyone, let him instantly realize that he has made an interpretation that is not true. Then let him turn within to his Eternal Guide, and let Him judge what the response should be. So is he healed, and in his healing is his pupil healed with him. The sole responsibility of God’s teacher is to accept the Atonement for himself. Atonement means correction, or the undoing of errors. When this has been accomplished, the teacher of God becomes a miracle worker by definition. His sins have been forgiven him, and he no longer condemns himself. How can he then condemn anyone? And who is there whom his forgiveness can fail to heal?

I have one thing to do here, one responsibility, one purpose. I am to accept the Atonement for myself. The process is simple. I notice when I respond with a lack of peace and I ask the Holy Spirit for a corrected interpretation. This is so simple that the ego mind, which thrives on complexity, will over-look it. But it works. I have been doing this process for several years and I see how effective it is.

This is the way I am healed, and it is the way my pupil is healed with me. I accept the Atonement (the Holy Spirit’s correction) for myself and as my mind is healed, so is my pupil’s mind. I hear objections from the ego mind as I read this. First, it doesn’t accept that there is only one of us, one mind, but it is an old argument and I’m not interested. The ego sees separate bodies and cannot see past what the body’s eyes see, but I am not limited to the body’s senses anymore.

Then the ego complains that this is not how teaching works. A teacher is one who knows more and shares that knowledge with one who knows less. She does that with words, either speaking or writing. The student sits at her feet (metaphorically) and absorbs her wisdom. The ego really likes this definition of teaching. It has all the elements it is so fond of, separation, hierarchy, and perception and projection.

Instead, Jesus has a different form of teaching in mind. In any relationship, the teacher of God watches her thoughts as she interacts and if she notices even the slightest irritation toward her pupil, she asks for and receives correction. As her mind is healed, the student’s mind is healed. Perfect. The ego hates this. Too simple. Where is the hierarchy in this? Where is the blame and the guilt?

And if this is really how it works, then why do workshops, write books, teach classes and facilitate courses? Jesus has also told us that our hands, our feet, our tongues are needed, so this kind of teaching must have its place. Of course it is through the words and the interactions that we see we have thoughts that need healing, but I think it is also helpful in other ways.

If the teacher’s words are inspired, they can help awaken the memory of truth in another’s mind. This has happened for me when I studied with Regina, and with Nouk and Tomas. I felt a stirring within when I read NTI. I was helped when I read Carrie Triffit’s books, and I love the simple but profound stories from Karmic Eraser. The Way of Mastery moved me deeply and opened me to a more expanded view of myself. Paul West’s book of inspired writings delights me. Most recently, Dying to Be Me has facilitated another shift in my mind.

There are so many ways the Holy Spirit speaks to me. A Course in Miracles itself is full of words, and is precious to me as a written path Home. But no book, no workshop, no words can awaken me. They can only motivate me, and inspire me to willingness. It is only the Holy Spirit that heals, and it is only with my willingness to be healed that this is accomplished. And, the hardest of all pill for the ego to swallow, it is through my healing that my student is healed.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 4-21-12

Day 111
3 Anger but screeches, “Guilt is real”! Reality is blotted out as this insane belief is taken as replacement for God’s Word. The body’s eyes now “see”; its ears alone can “hear.” Its little space and tiny breath become the measure of reality. And truth becomes diminutive and meaningless. Correction has one answer to all this, and to the world that rests on this:

You but mistake interpretation for the truth. And you are wrong. But a mistake is not a sin, nor has reality been taken from its throne by your mistakes. God reigns forever, and His laws alone prevail upon you and upon the world. His Love remains the only thing there is. Fear is illusion, for you are like Him.

What clever and powerful beings we are. We have diminished All That Is to the bit that can be seen and heard, analyzed and categorized. Even that was not enough. We decide how much of what is left available we will accept into our little personal worlds. While reading about a miracle cure I was not even surprised when the doctors said this person is not healed because it is not possible. Just because we can’t find the cancer doesn’t mean its not there, they say.

Given absolute proof that the world does not fit into the tenets of their texts, they simply refuse to see it, and so for them it does not exist. “Here, take some more medicine. Do it quickly before this so-called miracle of yours destroys everything I think I know,” I imagine them saying.

I am not without sympathy. I do the same thing every day. I am offered miracle after miracle and I turn away quickly, before What Is can intrude upon my closed mind and expose my illusion to the light of truth. I wonder if some of those doctors lay awake at night, uneasy with the possibilities that hover just outside their willingness to see. I wonder about them, because I have seen the light and though I allow in only a small beam of that light, it is enough to make total ignorance impossible. The little I see has created a great longing in me to see more.

It is truly a cosmic joke on the grandest scale imaginable that all we think we know and have proven to be true with our most advanced instruments, is just an interpretation, and that interpretation is wrong. Even the instruments that prove our error is truth are part of the same illusion. What if you looked up into the sky today and there were two suns. Can you imagine the feeling?

Can you imagine how frightening it would be to discover that everything you thought you knew about your world was wrong? We live a very fragile illusion that we are desperate to hold together. We cannot afford miracles. They could destroy everything and leave us with nothing. So says the ego mind. This is why we stand on the edge of Awakening, and yet refuse to take that last step even though we could easily do so.

God is Love, though, and is not fear. He does not terrorize His Children. So He sends us Help, and waits patiently. Time is nothing to Him, but to us it is an endless expanse of suffering. How we will laugh when we finally realize that we stood in paradise, eyes and mind tightly closed against it, and dreamed of hell.

Thank you God, that our dream is just a dream, and that I did not create myself. Thank you that reality remains unaffected by illusion. Thank you that I am wrong and Love remains the only thing that is true. Thank you for the Gentle Guide You sent to direct my steps and comfort me in my fear and hesitation. I love you, God, and I miss you. I think I’m nearly ready to open my eyes.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 4-20-12

Day 110
2 God’s teachers’ major lesson is to learn how to react to magic thoughts wholly without anger. Only in this way can they proclaim the truth about themselves. Through them, the Holy Spirit can now speak of the reality of the Son of God. Now He can remind the world of sinlessness, the one unchanged, unchangeable condition of all that God created. Now He can speak the Word of God to listening ears, and bring Christ’s vision to eyes that see. Now is He free to teach all minds the truth of what they are, so they will gladly be returned to Him. And now is guilt forgiven, overlooked completely in His sight and in God’s Word.

Because I really want to learn this lesson, I am being made aware of the anger that hides in my mind. It seems I often disguise it so it seems I am only concerned about the other person. Or I tamp it down so I can call it annoyance. Or sometimes I just distract myself until the anger has faded from my awareness, and because it goes away without much effect I can tell myself it was nothing.

A friend brought to my attention a situation I didn’t want to know about, and I was angry that she did. Someone from work required something of me that I didn’t feel capable of giving and I resented her for doing so. A family member acted selfishly and I felt angry with him. I didn’t think I had anger in me but, as it happens, I had just become very good at acting as if I didn’t, so good that I fooled myself. But anger denied is still destructive.

I love that my honest desire to heal is all it takes to reveal the anger. When we started reading about anger, I asked the Holy Spirit what He would have me learn about it. Now that I see it clearly in my actions and behavior, in spite of my previous efforts at hiding it, I very much desire healing.

As I express my willingness for correction, I feel the ego contract from the idea. My cover story is that I don’t even know where to begin, but of course, I don’t need to know. The Holy Spirit is the instrument of healing, and only awaits my sincere willingness. The ego mind clings to anger because it feels I am stripping myself of every defense I have and so feels exposed and vulnerable. If I can’t project guilt onto others then I will have to accept it as mine, it reasons, and that is not tolerable.

The Holy Spirit gently reminds me that there is no guilt to project. Of course the ego cannot accept that idea as it would mean finally lifting the veil and standing exposed before God, which is the ultimate fear, and preventing this is the ego’s whole purpose of existence. This is why there cannot be a “meeting of minds” between truth and illusion. I cannot bring truth to illusion and work something out. ~smile~ Truth and illusion are completely opposed and I must choose which I would entertain. Its ok if I choose ego, but it does lead to more suffering and I really am tired of suffering.

When I was younger I used to have a real problem with rage. I learned to suppress it and I thought that was the solution, but suppression is not healing. What is helping me to look at this honestly is that I am now more willing to accept the Myron character as she is, warts and all. This is the body and personality that I am meant to express at this time. It offers all that is needed to complete this part of our healing. This acceptance of self eases the way as I give my willingness to heal. It’s wonderful to no longer feel guilty for being “me”.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 4-19-12

Day 109

18. HOW IS CORRECTION MADE?
1 Correction of a lasting nature,-and only this is true correction,-cannot be made until the teacher of God has ceased to confuse interpretation with fact, or illusion with truth. If he argues with his pupil about a magic thought, attacks it, tries to establish its error or demonstrate its falsity, he is but witnessing to its reality. Depression is then inevitable, for he has “proved,” both to his pupil and himself, that it is their task to escape from what is real. And this can only be impossible. Reality is changeless. Magic thoughts are but illusions. Otherwise salvation would be only the same age-old impossible dream in but another form. Yet the dream of salvation has new content. It is not the form alone in which the difference lies.

Lasting correction occurs when I stop confusing interpretation with fact, illusion with truth. When this is true for me I will no longer feel any need to argue with anyone about their beliefs. I don’t want to argue with them, not even in my mind, because this just makes the idea of magic thoughts (ego thoughts, illusions) seem real with real effects, and something from which I must escape. The entire purpose of the Course is to show me a way out of my belief in illusion, and fighting against illusion is encouraging the belief in it. Who would fight something unless he thought it was real?

There are so many ways in which this happens. I read someone’s status update and think that they are wrong about that. I read a posting on one of the boards and feel a desire to answer it with the “right” interpretation. I listen to my brother explain how things in the world work, and want to correct his interpretation. These are the very obvious temptations, and yet who has not done this at times?

Who has not corrected someone for their own good, or covered their tracks with “kind and gentle” words so the attack seems less cruel. And yet, correction is correction no matter what kind of face we put on it, and to believe in the need to correct is to reinforce the belief that this bit of illusion is certainly real enough to warrant our attention. And if we don’t get this right there will be real consequences from which we must escape.

Any time I have ever felt the desire to respond with correction it has been because I believed my interpretation was more than an interpretation. I have also believed that his interpretation threatened my interpretation. And I believe that one interpretation will be left standing and it has to be mine. I seem to have believed that I could elevate interpretation to fact if I could argue it successfully, when all along I have only elevated illusion in my mind and made it seem so real to me that letting it go seemed nearly impossible.

This is insane and when I am in my sane mind I don’t do this. I don’t want to teach illusion is real because I don’t want to learn illusion is real. When I am in my sane mind I respond from sanity, from the Holy Spirit, the Truth that is in my mind. It tends to be in the form of an “I” thought, a story from my experience. It never calls to question the other person’s interpretation. As often as not the answer is silence.
This is an easy and peaceful way to live. Living from the “I don’t know” mind is an honest way to live. 

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 4-18-12

Day 108

9 Madness but seems terrible. In truth it has no power to make anything. Like the magic which becomes its servant, it neither attacks nor protects. To see it and to recognize its thought system is to look on nothing. Can nothing give rise to anger? Hardly so. Remember, then, teacher of God, that anger recognizes a reality that is not there; yet is the anger certain witness that you do believe in it as fact. Now is escape impossible, until you see you have responded to your own interpretation, which you have projected on an outside world. Let this grim sword be taken from you now. There is no death. This sword does not exist. The fear of God is causeless. But His Love is Cause of everything beyond all fear, and thus forever real and always true.

Someone says something to me and I feel a flash of anger. I then tell myself a story to justify this anger, and of course the story is about how guilty that person is for making me angry. In order to maintain my own innocence I must keep this person guilty and as long as he is guilty and I am innocent, we are separate. If I see separation anywhere I see myself outside God, Which is Wholeness. I am now a part of a closed system with no way to escape. My defense has become my prison.

Anger is not a fact. It is not real. It is just a false interpretation of a fact, and when I feel angry and do not question that anger, I am saying that I believe in that interpretation. I am teaching myself and all of the mind that I believe the ego is real. I believe that I have reason to fear God Who would have me lay down my sword and become defenseless before my enemy. Ego interpretation of this is that God is very angry with me for my betrayal of Him, and wants to see me dead. This is an endless cycle of pain, suffering and death.

Into this cycle of pain, God sends His teachers who shine a light into the darkened mind of His confused children. One by one, as they are ready, a book is put before them and they pick it up. Or an idea of light finds a place in the mind and their willingness nourishes it until it fills them and there is no room for the foolishness of separation beliefs. Maybe His teacher appears as a prophet or a guru and those of His children who have reached a stage of readiness walk away from all they have known to seek the truth they glimpse in this One.

I was talking to one of my children the other day about something that happened when they were young. My reaction at the time had been anger borne of fear. In the past I would have felt such shame for my behavior that I would have been scrambling for excuses and people to blame. But all I said was that it used to be hard to be me.

I look back on that lost soul and mostly feel only compassion for her confusion. She was so afraid of everything and that fear often erupted as anger. But what else could she do? Her mind was a thick, impenetrable jungle of crazy thoughts which were fed by a deep underground reservoir of guilt that she didn’t think about. She wandered this jungle, in constant defense against the enemies she saw everywhere she turned, her only weapons, anger and projection.

Into this tangled mess of thoughts that was her mind, a thought appeared and grew; “What if everything I believe is wrong?” That thought was a tiny little light in such a dark, dark place that I am still amazed that it was able to persist and grow until finally it has become so clear that I am beginning to realize that I have been fighting shadows. There was never anything there, just false beliefs appearing as real things.

This wonderful truth is still hard to hold onto. But like the hymn goes, “I was blind, but now I see.” There is enough light in my mind now that even when I become frightened of something I see there, if I keep looking at it I eventually see that it is nothing appearing as something, a shadow dissolving before the light.

How could the answer have been so simple? God is love and so He loves me. I am created like God, so I am love; I love Him. There is only God so I am Him. There is only one so you are me and we are Him. Everything else is a lie, shadows taking form, nothing.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 4-17-12

Day 107

8 Into this hopeless situation God sends His teachers. They bring the light of hope from God Himself. There is a way in which escape is possible. It can be learned and taught, but it requires patience and abundant willingness. Given that, the lesson’s manifest simplicity stands out like an intense white light against a black horizon, for such it is. If anger comes from an interpretation and not a fact, it is never justified. Once this is even dimly grasped, the way is open. Now it is possible to take the next step. The interpretation can be changed at last. Magic thoughts need not lead to condemnation, for they do not really have the power to give rise to guilt. And so they can be overlooked, and thus forgotten in the truest sense. 

Jesus says that though our way out requires patience and abundant willingness, the answer is simple. We begin with this one powerful truth; if anger comes from an interpretation and not a fact, it is never justified. This little piece of truth is so welcome! I know what to do with all anger. I look at what I think caused the anger and ask the Holy Spirit to show me where I went wrong in my interpretation.

I have been doing this for a long time so I know that it does require patience. I put the ego in charge of perception and the ego has no interest in the facts, only in spinning the facts to make it look like I am alone and vulnerable in a hostile world and must defend myself at all costs. Ego shows me everyone is my enemy and so anger is fully justified.

When I began choosing a different Voice to interpret my world, I found that it required great vigilance to remember to listen to that Voice. Now, years later, the patience and vigilance have begun to pay off. Magic thoughts are quickly reinterpreted for me and anger has little hold on me. I’m still working with this, though now the work is easier and the solution more welcome than when I first began. I have much less resistance because I value peace more than I value my defenses.

An example: Sometimes my boss gets mad at me and if it is caused by something over which I have no control I feel helpless. I want to defend myself, and start thinking of ways to do so. I might find someone else to blame it on, or get angry back at him, or maybe I can be the supplicant and wheedle my way back into his good graces.

Or I can recognize that anger (fear and guilt) are never justified. I must be misinterpreting what is happening. As I ask for a true interpretation I realize that he is acting from his own fear and this is not really about me. If I could place my fully awakened awareness on him for a moment I would know the fear and guilt that drives his actions and realize that as long as he believes in the fear and guilt he has no choice about how he reacts. I know how that feels and I feel less anger and more compassion.

The ego mind tries to pull my attention back by reminding me that compassion is all well and good, but what is his anger going to cost me in the meantime? What if there are consequences to the anger, a monetary loss or even getting fired? Ego says I better think of a defense and quickly.

I find I don’t want to. I don’t want to do anything to make this man more afraid and I don’t want to find someone else to make guilty. I feel strangely safe even though there is a little figure in my mind jumping up and down and screaming at me not to be a fool. The thought that has found a place of prominence in my mind is, “I wonder what will happen next.” It’s such a peaceful thought.

I am still aware of the ego histrionics and I look that way occasionally, and yes, it is still possible for me to get pulled back into the drama of fear and anger, defense and attack. But it is also possible for me to resist that pull, and to choose peace instead. Its very interesting actually. I give my attention to the fearful warnings of ego and I notice my stomach tightening and a weight on my chest. I feel the anxiety and the stress.

I take my attention away from the ego interpretation and I bring it back to the Holy Spirit and I feel peaceful and happy and very glad not to add to the burden this brother of mine carries. I have no desire to increase his fear and anger. I have no desire to increase my own.

I put my attention back on the ego and there is less temptation, but I am still aware of some fear. I go back and forth for awhile and realize it is showing me that the fear and anger are not real, just the result of a false interpretation. If it were real it would not dissipate in the face of truth. This is the way I learn that magic thoughts have no more power than I give them. As I stand defenseless and undisturbed by his anger, I am a teacher of God.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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