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Study of Manual for Teachers 7-3-12

7-3-12
6 Wrong-mindedness listens to the ego and makes illusions; perceiving sin and justifying anger, and seeing guilt, disease and death as real. Both this world and the real world are illusions because right-mindedness merely overlooks, or forgives, what never happened. Therefore it is not the One-mindedness of the Christ Mind, Whose Will is one with God’s.

Through right-mindedness we get to the real world, but even the real world is an illusion. It is a happier illusion, a reinterpretation of the illusion, but still an illusion. To return to the One-mindedness of the Christ Mind, where there is nothing to overlook or forgive, we must first undo what we have done through wrong-minded thinking and to experience our world differently.

There is nothing wrong with the idea of experiencing separation if that is what we want to do. It is not a sin and not even a mistake. We are the unlimited Sons of God and that means we can have any experience we want. However, when we forgot to laugh at the idea and took it seriously, we mistakenly believed in the experience, thus making it true for us. From this mistaken belief fear and guilt arose, and from that a world of separation gone awry.

Choosing to listen to the Holy Spirit is the way we retrace our steps and correct the mistake we made. We can then have the experience we intended before we got lost in fear and guilt. Once we have answered the question, “what would it be like to experience separation,” we can then let the question go, and with it the experience.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 7-2-12

7-2-12
5 The mind can be right or wrong, depending on the voice to which it listens. Right-mindedness listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and through Christ’s vision sees the real world in its place. This is the final vision, the last perception, the condition in which God takes the final step Himself. Here time and illusions end together.

The mind, our illusion-making machine, can also be used to turn the illusions off, or more correctly, it can help us diminish our desire for illusions. This is true because within that mind is the Voice for God, the Voice that guides us out of our confusion. This Voice will help us awaken from our dream if we listen to it. If we follow the advice given to us, we will begin to see the world differently. Done consistently, we will begin to see the real world, a world without pain, suffering, or death. Past that, we do nothing. God takes the final step, and illusions and time end.

We can do nothing to end illusions, but we can hasten the real world, through learning to listen to the Holy Spirit rather than ego. Learning to do this is only a matter of practice and willingness. Just a little willingness will get us started, and the practicing itself will increase our willingness until finally, we want nothing else.

When I first began to practice watching my mind for dark thoughts, I was afraid of what I would find and so pretended not to see them. But the little I was willing to see gave me something to practice with. I would acknowledge those thoughts and ask for a different way to see them. I became willing to forgive what I saw, that is to realize I was seeing amiss, seeing something that was not what it seemed. Then I asked for something else. My mind turned from the ego to the Holy Spirit for a new interpretation.

That was such a satisfying experience that I did it again and again with much more frequency. I discovered that allowing myself to see the dark thoughts was ok. There were no dire consequences as the ego had warned. My trust in ego diminished and my trust in Holy Spirit grew. As I forgave what I was seeing through ego (that is as I realized it wasn’t true and allowed it to be transformed through Holy Spirit) I taught myself that this is something I want, and so I began to listen to the Voice for God more than I did the ego voice.

I continue this practice and now take great joy in it. My willingness is strong and my desire for God is growing every day. Now when I see myself holding onto a belief that is hurting me, I am not confused about what it happening. I know that I do this to myself. I am amazed that I do it considering how painful it is to defend against God, but I also know that I will turn from the ego, if not now, then soon. I no longer see it as a betrayal to myself and to God, so its not scary. I know it is just a confused mind searching for truth in the wrong place. And I know that the confusion cannot last because I don’t want it to.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 7-1-12

7-1-12
4 The other part of the mind is entirely illusory and makes only illusions. Spirit retains the potential for creating, but its Will, which is God’s, seems to be imprisoned while the mind is not unified. Creation continues unabated because that is the Will of God. This Will is always unified and therefore has no meaning in this world. It has no opposite and no degrees.

And oh what illusions we make! The variety! The realism!  How clever we were to lose ourselves in the illusions so that we could get the full flavor of the separation idea. And how perfect it was to keep that spark of truth, the memory of our Self so that when we were done with this idea, we would have a Guide to take us out of it. I wonder if guilt and fear were simply an inevitable result of thinking we were separated from God and if we anticipated that part, or if it was an unpleasant surprise?

The ego mind makes illusions endlessly and is not going to stop. It is the only thing it can do, being made for that purpose and only that purpose. This is why I have become willing to start stepping back from the thinking mind. It had never occurred to me I could do so until I started reading from NTI about becoming an empty shell. My Heart responded to that immediately though the part of the mind that is resistant to letting go of the ego identity has not gone down without a fight.

Reading The Teachings of Inner Ramana and practicing what I read has helped a lot, and the thinking, the constant chatter of the ego, has lessened. It is quieter and more peaceful in my mind now. I am far from empty, but I am encouraged to continue my practice by the results thus far.

I cannot create in any true sense from this imprisoned state, but I can learn to slow the illusion machine down and to make gentler illusions. I can learn to allow the Holy Spirit to reinterpret what I see of the illusions. A healed perception is my goal while I seem to be here.

For now, every thought I have, everything I do or say, every choice I make either binds my mind more tightly in the chains of illusion, or further releases me from the desire for this experience. So I do the only thing I can do, I exercise the only freedom I have allowed myself in this game, I choose the guide, the interpreter I will follow. If I look to the ego for meaning, I go more deeply into the illusion. If I call on the Holy Spirit to show me what each thing means, I move out of the illusion. This is not a choice I make and then it’s done. I make this choice moment by moment until it’s done.

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