Together, We Light the Way

Click link to go to:
Together We Light the Way Index

Study of the Text 12-31-12

12-31-12
5 The Atonement was built into the space-time belief to set a limit on the need for the belief itself, and ultimately to make learning complete. The Atonement is the final lesson. Learning itself, like the classrooms in which it occurs, is temporary. The ability to learn has no value when change is no longer necessary. The eternally creative have nothing to learn. You can learn to improve your perceptions and can become a better and better learner. This will bring you into closer and closer accord with the Sonship; but the Sonship itself is a perfect creation and perfection is not a matter of degree. Only while there is a belief in differences is learning meaningful.

There is my reality. I am part of the Sonship with no needs of any kind. There is no time and space for me, no need for the Atonement or lessons. I am eternally creative and there is nothing for me to learn. I do not perceive because I know. I am perfect so there is nothing to improve upon.

There is the substitute experience I chose. I see myself as a body living in space and time. I pretend that I cannot remember my reality and don’t know who I am. I have convinced myself that I am separate from God and have scared myself with this thought. I believe I have shattered reality into endless pieces and that I am now one small piece and have nothing to do with all the rest. I believe that I am a fragile body among billions of bodies, but alone and helpless and forever desperately grasping for all that I have lost.

The substitute experience is not real and there is a place in my mind that knows the truth, but I have buried it deeply in shadows of illusion so I can continue this pretense. This is the self that I know best, this little self of limitations, the self I have most closely identified with. But I have begun to shake off the long sleep and have begun to awaken to my true nature.

I do this by questioning the mind’s thoughts and allowing the Voice of God to guide me out of darkness of my mind. A Course in Miracles is the instruction book, its words a pathway out of illusion. The Holy Spirit is my Guide, my Comforter and my Healer. As the light of truth dissolves the darkness of illusions in my mind, I allow that light to shine into my brother’s mind and show them the truth that is there.

It is through the Atonement that I slowly shift my perceptions and bring them more closely into alignment with truth. I made the world as a playground for experience and things got badly out of hand. It became a prison in which the Son of God seems to be trapped by his fear and guilt. The Holy Spirit has another use for it, though. It is now being used as a classroom where my little self can learn lessons and allow the Holy Spirit to correct my thinking and bring my perceptions closer and closer to reality.

What a strange thing this is, the perfect have seemingly made themselves imperfect and then forgotten that they did this to themselves. Now they appear to be frightened and guilty creatures, helpless and unable to remember any other state. But all that is changing. First we pretend we need help, then we pretend to learn lessons so we can finally return to our natural state of wholeness and perfection in which there is nothing to learn.

This year has been a year of extraordinary shifts for me. I was thinking about the passages from A Course in Miracles that have been most influential in those shifts. One would be from Lesson 190 which says: If God is real, there is no pain. If pain is real, there is no God. I decided to believe this and to practice this, and then to experience it. I have watched in amazement as I experienced the physical manifestations of this healing of my mind.

The second passage that has triggered a significant shift in my understanding said: There is nothing outside your mind. T18 VI Beyond the Body. Jesus says the same thing in other ways throughout the Course, but for some reason, when I heard those words I suddenly believed them and everything changed. Now, no matter what I am experiencing, physical or emotional, whether it is a challenge with finances, relationships or the body, I recognize that it is occurring in my mind and nowhere else, and therefore healing must occur in my mind.

How about you? Has there been a particular passage or idea from the Course that has greatly influenced your life this year?

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-28-12

12-28-12
4 The Atonement is the only defense that cannot be used destructively because it is not a device you made. The Atonement principle was in effect long before the Atonement began. The principle was love and the Atonement was an act of love. Acts were not necessary before the separation, because belief in space and time did not exist. It was only after the separation that the Atonement and the conditions necessary for its fulfillment were planned. Then a defense so splendid was needed that it could not be misused, although it could be refused. Refusal could not, however, turn it into a weapon of attack, which is the inherent characteristic of other defenses. The Atonement thus becomes the only defense that is not a two-edged sword. It can only heal.

I had a really hard time understanding Atonement as used in the Course. For years I have kept the Glossary-Index (by Kenneth Wapnick) nearby so I could look it up again and remind myself of its meaning. The meaning would not stick, and now I know that this is because for a long time I was so conflicted about what I wanted that there were some things in the Course I refused to understand.

Jesus explains to us here that Atonement in principle is love, and he says that it was in effect long before the Atonement began. The way he explains it is that the Atonement is an act of love and that before the separation there was no need for acts since space and time did not exist. Perhaps one of the reasons I had trouble with this explanation, even though it is simple, is that I had so little understanding of love. I still believed in the love concept as it exists in the illusion and love from the ego point of view is, at it’s best, selfish unreliable and conditional, and at it’s worst, destructive.

Later Jesus speaks of the Atonement as undoing separation and this was the explanation that stuck with me. Now when I read the word Atonement, I automatically substitute the word undoing. But isn’t that love? Isn’t undoing the ego an act of love? It is Love being itself, transforming what we have done simply through the power of being it’s self. Because I still have so little understanding of love, I still find the word undoing more useful to me, but I must be growing in my understanding because while I can’t seem to find words for it, I do understand more than before.

The next thing he says about Atonement is that it cannot be misused. I cannot use the Atonement to hurt myself or others. I certainly cannot say that about any other defense that I am familiar with. If I defend myself against pain that I perceive as coming from another, my defense will be hurtful in many ways. I will separate myself from that person which is the thing that causes all suffering to begin with. Even if I keep our bodies in contact, in my mind I have separated us into victim and victimizer, so the harm is done.

The most significant experience I have had with love undoing the ego was with my ex-husband. We had a very contentious relationship, especially at the end, and I was very glad to finally walk away from it. I didn’t feel there was anything else I could do at that time to heal the marriage and I was tired of suffering through it. But I was very surprised to realize that I could not leave the relationship. I understand now that all relationships must be healed and the proximity of the two bodies involved is not important.

While I was still in the process of forgiving myself and him and the relationship, it seemed very hard. But doing this work helped me to see that it was only hard when I tried to do it from the ego mind. The ego was only interested in defense through attack. When I finally surrendered the whole thing to Spirit, Love did its thing, and all the animosity fell away like it was nothing. Which is what it was.

When I was still trying to undo with the ego it felt very complicated. Guilt confused everything. I would think of something he did or said and I just wanted to protect myself from ever experiencing that again. Then I would think of something I did or said, and I wanted to be far from him because his presence triggered the memory of my guilty act.

There was so much projection in an attempt to protect myself from my feelings of guilt that I could not begin to unravel it all. I spent a lot of time rejecting the Atonement but my rejection didn’t cause me any harm. Not accepting it prolonged my suffering, but did not hurt either of us. This could not be said of my ego defenses, which clearly caused pain for us both.

It all changed, though, when I realized that all I wanted was peace. I wanted to forgive and I didn’t want anything else. I didn’t want to protect myself or hide myself anymore and so I didn’t need him to be my scapegoat. In that moment of surrender Love cleansed me and purified my mind. I did nothing but say yes. I don’t know if I will ever, while in this illusory state of mind, understand Love, but I have learned to trust it.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-27-12

12-27-12
3 You can defend truth as well as error. The means are easier to understand after the value of the goal is firmly established. It is a question of what it is for. Everyone defends his treasure, and will do so automatically. The real questions are, what do you treasure, and how much do you treasure it? Once you have learned to consider these questions and to bring them into all your actions, you will have little difficulty in clarifying the means. The means are available whenever you ask. You can, however, save time if you do not protract this step unduly. The correct focus will shorten it immeasurably.

In this paragraph I am being encouraged to set my goal and give it my attention. This will save time and that is what I ultimately want to do. In fact, I want to end time. Here is how I am doing this. I began like most people just hoping to find a way to live that was not so painful. A Course in Miracles seemed to help me do that.

I discovered through the Course and Course related books like, Inner Healing by Dan Joseph, simple but effective ways to watch my mind and allow my perception to be corrected and brought nearer the truth. Then in books like NTI and Teachings of the Inner Ramana, I learned more about turning away from the chatter of the ego mind.

While this was happening, I made a significant change. I realized that when Jesus talked about defending my treasure, he meant that I would defend the thoughts that mean the most to me. It seems I would have noticed that a lot sooner since he talks about it right here in Chapter 2, but I guess I was not ready to see this for a while. But once I did see it, and realized I wanted it, I asked myself what exactly it was that I treasure, and if my present treasure was going to get me what I really want.

It was easy to see that I treasured a lot of things that were not bringing me peace. I would defend my right to be happy and that was not working for me. I would defend my right to decide for myself, and to make plans on my own. These treasures were not making me happy either. Sometimes I would defend against the ego, but sometimes I would defend against God. It was like shuffling in place, only once in a while taking a step forward.

I saw that I needed a goal, a purpose, something that would be a guiding force in my life. I began to pay special attention to the lessons about my function. In Lesson 61, Jesus says this. How holy are you who have the power to bring peace to every mind! He then says: You are indeed the light of the world with such a function. What is he talking about, this lofty function? He says that it is my forgiveness that does this. And he encourages me to accept no trivial purpose in its place.

When I watch my mind for ego thoughts and ask that they be corrected and the mind be healed, this is what I am doing. I am remembering that my function is forgiveness. I forgive the beliefs I have held dear but that have hurt me. I did this in the beginning for Myron so that she would have a happier life, but I soon realized that the purpose is to save the world. Each time I do this, I bring peace to every mind.

This is a treasure worth defending. I defend it by choosing forgiveness every chance I get. Because I have decided on my one goal, which is to awaken from the dream of separation, which is the same thing as forgiving the world I made, it has become easy to choose what I would defend. Now I simply notice if the choice I am considering is going to bring me closer to my one goal, or bring me deeper into the illusion.

How to do the forgiveness work is not something I have ever had to figure out. I choose forgiveness as my one function and the means are provided, just as Jesus said they would be. As I make that choice, the Holy Spirit places before me everything I need to make it possible. I find, without effort, every book, every teacher, every inspirational word that will help me. I am directed by the Voice within what to do next, where to go, what to say.

An objection the ego has is that forgiving the world one thought at a time doesn’t feel very lofty. The ego doesn’t feel like a super hero. Saving the world seems to the ego like it ought to have more of a pay-off, that being savior of the world should add to its sense of specialness and this is not what is happening. In fact, it doesn’t feel like much is happening for long stretches of time, and when it does change, the ego notices a loss of specialness instead of an increase in what it most craves.

Later in the Text, Jesus will help us understand that the ego doesn’t know the difference between pain and pleasure. For instance, the ego thinks that specialness is pleasure, when really it is a source of pain. This is why there was confusion for me at first, when I thought nothing much was coming of all this work. But I trusted Jesus and kept at it, remembering my one goal, remembering my one function, and I began to have a peace filled life.

Now I lose my peace at times, but not often and not for long. Now I know that peace is what I want and I know that nothing else comes close, so the means to regain that peace are available to me as soon as I am ready to return to peace. I also understand that I share one mind with all my brothers and so as I choose peace for myself, I am choosing it for us all.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-26-12

12-26-12
2 True denial is a powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. This kind of denial is not a concealment but a correction. Your right mind depends on it. Denial of error is a strong defense of truth, but denial of truth results in miscreation, the projections of the ego. In the service of the right mind the denial of error frees the mind, and re-establishes the freedom of the will. When the will is really free it cannot miscreate, because it recognizes only truth.

I used to be in denial about a lot of stuff. When I did something regrettable I would push away the guilt I felt. I would push it out of my conscious awareness, or I would push it on to someone else, making it seem, on the surface, to be her or his fault. I might push it onto the circumstance, convincing myself what I did was unavoidable considering what happened, or maybe considering the way I was raised or things that happened to me in the past.

Of course this doesn’t work. What ever I push away or down is still there. Guilt experienced out of my awareness is still guilt. Guilt given away is still with me because what I give is now more mine than before. In fact it is made worse because now I have guilt for the original idea and guilt for trying to foist it on someone else, and I have reinforced the belief in guilt.

Regardless of how I choose to experience guilt, it is destructive. Judgment, which always comes before guilt is the building block of the illusion and guilt, which always follows judgment, is the glue that holds the illusion in place. The illusion is the place I hide my guilt from God, and returning to God is my goal, so this kind of denial is counterproductive.

There is, however, a useful form of denial. When I notice that I feel guilty or fearful, or angry, jealous, sad, uncertain or doubtful, anything but joyous, I can deny this. I don’t deny I feel it. In fact I allow the feeling, sitting in it for a moment, looking at it with the Holy Spirit. What I deny is that the feeling has a true cause. As I deny the authenticity of the feeling, I ask that my mind be healed of the false belief that triggered this feeling.

I was having some lower back and leg pain yesterday and I noticed that the mind was thinking of reasons for this pain. I overdid shopping, cooking, cleaning and entertaining. I need to turn my mattress. This happens periodically and it means it is time to see a chiropractor. I shouldn’t have lifted that heavy box. These ideas are the wrong use of denial. So then I used denial correctly and denied that any of these things causes physical pain.

These things are just where I project the cause using one or more of them to blame for my pain, and that used to work for me. In this way I was trying to convince myself I was not responsible for what happens to me. I was a victim of circumstances, or people who demanded too much of me. The problem is, this does not really work, but only seems to for awhile.

The truth is in my mind, though I deny it and pretend I don’t know that I but do this to myself. Because it is in my mind, I am left with a sense of anxiety that I don’t consciously identify, but that is discomforting. If I don’t allow myself to become fully aware, I have no way to correct the problem.

Yesterday, what I did instead was to deny the mind’s projections. I know that nothing is outside my mind. This body is not outside my mind. The idea of pain is not outside my mind. The body is an image and the pain is a concept and all of it was of my own design. I am fully responsible for the belief in body and in pain and I accept that responsibility without guilt. Now that I am fully aware, I can ask the Holy Spirit to come into my mind and undo what I have done.

This is as applicable to financial problems, relationship problems or anything else that I have previously used as a way to express the hidden, unconscious guilt that is in my mind. It is so simple that I can hardly believe it has taken this long to accept the truth. Jesus says in simple and easy to understand words that there is nothing outside my mind.

He says that the world I see is an illusion. He says that I but do this to myself. He says that I am not a body. He says that the Holy Spirit in my mind can easily undo all of these beliefs when I am ready, and asks me to allow this healing. He says I can do anything he asks of me. This is all just an error and he says that I can deny any belief that error can hurt me, and this is what I choose to do now.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-24-12

12-24-12
I. The Atonement as Defense
1 You can do anything I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles, and have made it clear that miracles are natural, corrective, healing and universal. There is nothing they cannot do, but they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt or fear. When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you. Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure also. You believe in what you value. If you are afraid, you will inevitably value wrongly, and by endowing all thoughts with equal power will inevitably destroy peace. That is why the Bible speaks of “the peace of God which passeth understanding.” This peace is totally incapable of being shaken by errors of any kind. It denies the ability of anything not of God to affect you. This is the proper use of denial. It is not used to hide anything, but to correct error. It brings all error into the light, and since error and darkness are the same, it corrects error automatically.

The first sentence in this paragraph sends chills down my spine. I can do anything Jesus asks of me. That statement is unequivocal. Jesus has said that I can perform miracles and he has made it clear that they are important. This is a statement that I don’t want to forget. I will remind myself of this as we go along in this study.

The reason that sometimes it seems I cannot perform a miracle is made clear when he says they cannot be performed in doubt or fear. When I see that a physical healing is needed and I wonder if I am supposed to do this, or if I just cannot believe that this can be healed, at least by me, this blocks the healing.

Yesterday I got the chance to witness what happens when fear is removed. I have talked about the house I bought and the work being done. I also talked about the roofing materials being stolen. I had to buy them all over again. I did not go into fear about this and I trusted that all would work out exactly as it should.

Since I was not fearful, my mind was clear when it came to the thieves. I did not feel angry or resentful of them, and instead, realizing how painful it must be to live with such fear of lack that you think your survival depends on taking what others have, I pray for their healing. Their healing is my healing because healing spreads throughout the mind. If I were fearful about the loss myself, fear would block love and defensiveness would make the belief in separation stronger within the mind.

Yesterday I realized I was out of money and I still have a lot to be done. When I saw the numbers I felt a moment of panic. Not only was I short of money to finish the project, but also I didn’t have enough money to pay for what was done already. In spite of the panicky feeling, I also felt that current of truth that flows unchanged and unimpeded by ego. I knew that the panic was not the true thought in my mind and when I asked for help, the Holy Spirit reminded me that there were other thoughts in the mind and I could look at those.

So I turned my attention to those thoughts. I remembered that this script is written and my job is to see it with Christ Vision. The only purpose of the story is to show me where there is still a need to heal my mind. Other true thoughts were there, and the panic quickly faded away. I wanted to know how I could use this situation to heal our mind. I also needed to know how to deal with it in the story.

As I sat there in peace I remembered that I have some money in a vacation account that I could use. Then I remembered another way I could get some money. During the day, money began to flow into my life in the most unexpected and remarkable ways. I didn’t do anything to create most of this flow; it just came into my life. I don’t know if it will be enough, but I trust that flow. Why should it stop before the project is complete?

One of the things I was to learn from this situation is that fear blocks the flow of love, and removing fear allows it to move into my life in whatever way I think I need it. In this situation, the most useful way for love to show up was as money and so that is what happened. I will use the money to finish the project because that is what’s needed in this story of Myron’s life, but what I felt was love washing over me simply because I allowed it. It was a wonderful feeling.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-21-12

12-21-12
5 Whatever lies you may believe are of no concern to the miracle, which can heal any of them with equal ease. It makes no distinctions among misperceptions. Its sole concern is to distinguish between truth on the one hand, and error on the other. Some miracles may seem to be of greater magnitude than others. But remember the first principle in this course; there is no order of difficulty in miracles. In reality you are perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love. These can be from yourself and others, from yourself to others, or from others to you. Peace is an attribute in you. You cannot find it outside. Illness is some form of external searching. Health is inner peace. It enables you to remain unshaken by lack of love from without and capable, through your acceptance of miracles, of correcting the conditions proceeding from lack of love in others.

I just love that first sentence! It doesn’t matter what form an untruth takes, or how big or complicated it seems. The miracle is unaffected. It simply is true or it is not. This really simplifies things, doesn’t it? I see now that the reason it seems like some miracles feel different than others is that I believe in some falsehoods more than others.

When looking for a parking place I call on my parking angel. My parking angel really rocks! She’s the best parking angel ever. I’m never surprised anymore when I go straight to an excellent parking place even in holiday shopping crowds. This feels like a tiny miracle and hardly worth mentioning, and even a little embarrassing. The kind of thing you tell someone and then laugh, like it’s a joke. But really, why should I expect my life to be difficult, as if expecting a convenient parking place would put a strain on the universe.

In the past I have asked for healing of some sort and the mind would come up with reasons why I should not ask, or question if good would be the most helpful response. For instance, I would ask for ease in dealing with a difficult person and the thought would be that maybe having to deal with adversity was what I really needed. I would ask for someone else’s healing and would question if that was the best prayer. Maybe they are supposed to go through this sickness.

And of course, I have had the thought that I can’t believe something can be healed. It just doesn’t seem possible because it is so awful, or so real in some other way that it is too difficult for me to imagine it being simply gone or changed. All of these objections to miracles are the result of me believing in the lie more than I believed in the miracle. It is also the result of believing that all of these effects are outside the mind.

When I believe that the body is outside the mind, I think it is separate and out of my sphere of direct influence. It then seems as if there is the body and separate from that is my mind that will now have to affect something not part of itself. Now that separation is established in my mind with that thought, I see everything as separate.

A separate entity, the doctor, must be called upon. Separate medicines must be used and I can only hope the right one is available and works for me, because I am separate and unique from other people. Because we are different, it might work on them but not me. A separate, and unreliable God can be prayed to, but since He is mad at me for being separate I don’t always feel deserving of His help so my supplications are tentative.

It gets even more complicated if I see someone else suffering and want to help, or if someone seems to be a threat to me in some way. I have to deal with the insurance people today and this feels like a threat, with them wanting one thing and me another. If I think they are outside my mind, and thus separate from me, I feel confused about how to pray. Would it be right to pray that I influence them or would that be unfair to them? What if I influence them to see things my way and then they get in trouble and lose their job? What would be the right prayer?

Here is what I did instead. I realized that I don’t know the right outcome for myself or anyone else when it comes to healing of the body or the insurance situation so I ask for the right outcome without any attachment to what that might look like. I also realize that I am meant to be free and joyful and at peace and that there is no reason for me to experience anything else, nor is there any reason for anyone else to have a different experience. I am innocent and I am loved. Everyone else is innocent and loved.

All of the world, everyone in it and every dream we are having is in the mind. Jesus says there is nothing outside the mind and that was an unequivocal statement. I accept that and believe that. Since the body and the insurance people and the situations I am dealing with are all in my mind, I ask that my mind be healed of any mistaken thought that the outcome should be less than loving, joyful and peaceful for all involved.

When I notice a thought in my mind that does not feel loving, peaceful or joyful, I know that this is not a true thought. That is as far as I need to go with it. The form the thought takes is not of concern. It is either true or it is not true. I give the thought to Holy Spirit in full expectation of the miracle. I have every right and reason to expect a healed mind. As my mind is healed, my dream shifts and takes on a happy aspect.

Because I know this to be true, I am not disturbed by anything in the dream that is taking time to shift. My certainty allows me to wait in happy anticipation to see how life works itself out. Sometimes I have been delighted to see that all I needed to be happy was the acceptance of what was happening. I didn’t actually need the picture to change at all. Sometimes I have laughed as the scene before me dissolved into something else.

Without the stress of doubt and uncertainty life is simply interesting. If I become confused and forget what is real and what isn’t, if I start seeing the story as if it is happening “out there” the stress returns. I feel anxious and panicky. I make the mistake of thinking that one mistaken thought was more powerful than another and so some things can be fixed and some not. But now that I know why this happens, I can just take a moment to give these thoughts to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to undo what I have done.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-20-12

12-20-12
4 All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God. Of course, you neither can nor have been able to do this. Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. The escape is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables you to realize that your errors never really occurred. Only after the deep sleep fell upon Adam could he experience nightmares. If a light is suddenly turned on while someone is dreaming a fearful dream, he may initially interpret the light itself as part of his dream and be afraid of it. However, when he awakens, the light is correctly perceived as the release from the dream, which is then no longer accorded reality. This release does not depend on illusions. The knowledge that illuminates not only sets you free, but also shows you clearly that you are free.

I am innocent. I am innocent. I am innocent, and nothing is happening. I am dreaming and sometimes that dream is a nightmare. There is nothing to be afraid of because nothing is happening. I am not guilty of misusing my creative powers because I cannot create amiss. All that I have done, though it is truly amazing to see, is nothing. The whole world and everything that has ever happened . . . hasn’t happened.

There is a part of my mind that knows this. There is also a part of my mind that is still afraid. It still looks at the world as if it is real and feels both pleasure and pain. I still become distracted by and drawn into the illusion. The difference now is that I never quite believe it, and even when it feels its most real, the world begins to recede again as I ask for help. “Holy Spirit, please come into my mind and undo what I have done.”

I make this jump into illusion and out again dozens of times during the day. Most of the time it’s just little things that barely affect me. I think about something that happened in the past and feel a sense of shame or guilt and then remember I am innocent. It happened as it was meant to happen. It could not have happened any other way. It didn’t happen at all in reality. Sometimes I am a little giddy as I let that truth set in a bit more.

Sometimes the jump feels really big, like when I was wrapped up in Toby’s story of pain and suffering. Times like that the world feels very real and it is so hard to remember the world is not real, and yet, my mind never let go of the truth. I knew I was wrong even while I was believing in what I saw with my eyes. I continued to say my prayer even as my heart was breaking and my emotions were sweeping me away.

This seems to be the way of it for now. I am not concerned about any of the apparent “failures” or how long it takes to fully awaken. As the Manual for Teachers says, the teacher of God is not perfect, but teaches perfection over and over until she learns it. So I look at whatever is in front of me and I ask Spirit what I am to do with this. What am I to learn? What am I to say and to whom? Where am I to go next? Then I write about the experience and whatever understanding Spirit gives me, and I share it with anyone who is ready to hear it. This is the process I have been given to wake up.

But the awakening is not about the story. The illusion does not wake us up. The illusion does not indicate the depth of the sleep. The illusion is just an illusion. It is meaningless until we give it meaning. The meaning I am choosing is to see it as a useful way to see what needs healing within the mind and that is all.

I have been in a deep sleep, but now I am awakening from that sleep, and if I doze off again once in awhile, I am not worried about it. I know that I am sleeping and that makes all the difference in the world. The story, and my continued part in it, doesn’t mean I am not awakening. It has, as I have allowed healing, become a tool for the awakening. And, I know what to do to continue the slow awakening. Thank you, God, for that.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Page 1 of 4 pages  1 2 3 >  Last ›

<< Back to main page of Together, We Light the Way

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.