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Study of the Text, II. The Alternative to Projection, Paragraph 13. 12-5-13

II. The Alternative to Projection, Paragraph 13
13 The Holy Spirit was given you with perfect impartiality, and only by recognizing Him impartially can you recognize Him at all. The ego is legion, but the Holy Spirit is one. No darkness abides anywhere in the Kingdom, but your part is only to allow no darkness to abide in your own mind. This alignment with light is unlimited, because it is in alignment with the light of the world. Each of us is the light of the world, and by joining our minds in this light we proclaim the Kingdom of God together and as one.

What we are being told in this section, over and over in many ways, is that in the Kingdom of God there is only light and there is only one. As we begin to awaken to the truth we will find ourselves in this Kingdom, and obviously we cannot bring our thoughts of separation and darkness with us. This is our job now, the way we awaken. We are to let go of those beliefs that keep us in the dark.

Holy Spirit is one. I cannot recognize Spirit if I want to see It only where I choose. Yesterday I wanted to see the hotel personnel outside Holy Spirit. I wanted them to be guilty and wrong. My thoughts were dark. My job was to recognize the error and to allow my mind to be healed of the belief that they could be anything but holy. Today I am only grateful for my room and for the people who provide it. I did my job when I changed my mind about what I wanted to be true, and Holy Spirit did His job when He answered my prayer and healed my mind.

Sometimes I read about some awful crime or see someone who seems very deeply into the ego. I wonder how we are ever going to awaken. I know someone who is very religious and who thinks that the greatest expression of his belief in God is his fear of God. He would be afraid not to be afraid of God.

I am sure I must have felt that way before, and maybe some of that is still left, buried deep in my mind. I don’t know because none of it is conscious. But the degree of his fear and his belief that this is what God wants from him is so intense; I look at it and wonder how we are going to awaken from this. And I know he is a part of myself, a representative of the mind that we are, and he is just expressing the part of our mind that believes this. So this belief is alive and well in the mind and must be healed before we return our mind to the Kingdom. 

As I wonder how many eons it will take I become discouraged. Jesus is telling me not to worry about that. He says that my job is to allow no darkness to abide in my own mind. I’m glad that is my only job because it keeps me plenty busy. I am reminded that I am awake, that this is only a journey of remembering. 

This is true for my confused friend as well, and true for those who lash out in their fear and confusion and believe that they must hurt others. The light is in all our minds because it is in the mind. All we are doing is deciding we want to remember that we want to be awake. The plan is in place and it is perfect. When I question it and doubt it, I am the one confused and this is a bit of darkness I can give to Spirit in gratitude for my healing.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, II. The Alternative to Projection, Paragraph 12. 12-4-13

II. The Alternative to Projection, Paragraph 12

12 The difference between the ego’s projection and the Holy Spirit’s extension is very simple. The ego projects to exclude, and therefore to deceive. The Holy Spirit extends by recognizing Himself in every mind, and thus perceives them as one. Nothing conflicts in this perception, because what the Holy Spirit perceives is all the same. Wherever He looks He sees Himself, and because He is united He offers the whole Kingdom always. This is the one message God gave to Him and for which He must speak, because that is what He is. The peace of God lies in that message, and so the peace of God lies in you. The great peace of the Kingdom shines in your mind forever, but it must shine outward to make you aware of it.

Here is what I understand from reading this paragraph. The Holy Spirit extends through recognizing Himself in everyone He sees, thus offering us a vision of wholeness, and so the peace of God. Through looking with the Holy Spirit we see that we are one because we see what He sees. This is the Holy Spirit’s purpose, what He was created for and therefore what He is.

Because He is in our mind, the peace of God is always available to us. If we are not in God’s peace it is not because His peace is not available to us. It is because we have made a deliberate choice to look through the ego perception rather than through the Holy Spirit’s Vision. Understanding that this is the problem, the reason we are not at peace, we can choose again. Looking through the shattered lens of ego we will always see separation and this will show us war. Looking through the single lens of Spirit we will always see One and this will show us peace.

Here is a simple example that happened to me yesterday. I got to my favorite hotel to discover they are in the middle of construction and so had limited in rooms available. I was given a room upstairs and on the outside. I usually stay downstairs and always on the inside. As it turns out, it seems my preference about rooms is very important to me. I was immediately upset.

Since I was out of peace I watched my thoughts to see what happened. I saw that I resented being in a place I didn’t like and that I blamed the hotel staff for my unhappiness. I looked at these people through the shattered lens of ego and saw them as separate from me. I saw that I had an objective and that was to be in the room I wanted, and they had a different objective and that was to put me in the room they had available. This put us at war and one of us was going to win and it wasn’t going to be me.

I allowed the ego mind to run with this and I saw that it took me from mild disappointment to rage at not getting my way. All kinds of vengeful thoughts came up as I continued to project blame for my upset on them. My behavior changed to reflect the feelings I was choosing to have and I didn’t smile and joke with the employees. Most of this was in my mind only, and I doubt anyone but me noticed. I am not so insane that I believe my thoughts, but I was very aware of them and chose to change them because I don’t want to lose my peace.

It took some effort on my part. This is where my work comes in. I set my intention to return my mind to God. I asked Holy Spirit to show me how He sees this. He gently showed me the belief in my mind that this situation was the fault of the hotel, and then asked me how this could possibly have anything to do with them. I write my own story and the script is drawn from the beliefs I hold to and defend. If I seem to be a victim in this story of the hotel it can only be because I still treasure my victim story and through projecting blame I continue to defend it from the healing power of the Christ Mind.

Seeing this so clearly, it was easy enough for me to change my mind. It still took a little effort as the ego continued to try to interest me in finding someone else to blame. But who could I blame? The hotel is not the author of my story. I am the one who put this into play. I used a prayer that I find simple and effective. I surrendered my story and my beliefs to Spirit and accepted His healing grace. He showed me that even after the fact I still was not without choices. I could allow a new vision of the written story. As soon as I made that choice the way I felt about the room changed.

I realized that the stairs were a rare opportunity for exercise. I saw that the outside rooms are under an awning and so protected from weather which we are supposed to have tomorrow. I laughed as I saw that I had a full refrigerator instead of a little hotel fridge and wondered if I wanted to go by some groceries. Well, maybe not, but I do have to take samples that need to be kept cold and this refrigerator would provide plenty of room for that.

More important than my ease with the room, my vision cleared and I saw my own Divine Mind at work within the story and so I saw everyone else in the same way. Christ sees only Christ. Oneness restores peace. Even if the room were a mess I would still have seen the perfection within the mess, because a healed mind sees only perfection and only the movement of Spirit in everything. It is a wonderful thing to be aware of the Christ within, but the only way to do that is to allow it to shine outward and show me the Christ in everyone else.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text II. The Alternative to Projection, Paragraph 10 12-2-13

II. The Alternative to Projection
10 The Holy Spirit uses time, but does not believe in it. Coming from God He uses everything for good, but He does not believe in what is not true. Since the Holy Spirit is in your mind, your mind can also believe only what is true. The Holy Spirit can speak only for this, because He speaks for God. He tells you to return your whole mind to God, because it has never left Him. If it has never left Him, you need only perceive it as it is to be returned. The full awareness of the Atonement, then, is the recognition that the separation never occurred. The ego cannot prevail against this because it is an explicit statement that the ego never occurred.

I am in God and there is a place in my mind that knows this is true. To find that truth and stay with it is to return home. What seems to be happening now is that I find the truth in my mind, but then I become diverted by the story, which is also in my mind. I always bring myself back to the truth, though, and usually very quickly. I write this and I realize what it means and I get chills up and down my spine. I am waking up.

Every time I turn to the Holy Spirit, He tells me, in some way, to return my mind to God where it has never left. I am not returning to God, really, I am already there. Since I am already there the separation never occurred and the ego does not exist. “It is not possible for me to fail, is it Jesus?” When I think of this I smile and laugh and cry. I don’t know what to do with myself.

Just a short time ago I would notice judgmental thoughts or grievances in my mind and I would know that this was not good. I would try to look at them with the Holy Spirit but would have trouble understanding how they could not be true. The story would seem so real it was hard to see the truth behind the story.

Sometimes, I would ask for my mind to be healed, but my heart wasn’t on board with the words. I would want to be healed, but I would also want to keep my grievance. This conflict was very painful and very confusing and it would scare me. I thought it meant I couldn’t do this. I didn’t know how to resolve it and I felt guilty that I was in this position.

Now what happens is that sometimes I find a grievance or a judgment in my mind and I know that I don’t want it, because this grievance or judgment stands between me and God. It might take a little while to decide I want only God, but I no longer doubt myself. I know what my choice will be. Yesterday I had an experience of judgment while I was with someone. This person lacks some basic hygiene skills and smells very bad. It was hard for me to be with her.

The Virgo personality I have chosen for this story really hates that kind of thing. Because I want to wake up more than I want to judge, the situation in which I found myself, (and which should have been short-lived), went on for hours, so I had plenty of time to watch my mind and make a choice for love. I went back and forth with it for the longest time, and this is what I noticed; I am OK with myself, I can take all the time I need and it doesn’t make me guilty.

It took longer than usual for me to overcome my judgment and to make a new decision and that’s all right. I was patient with myself because I know the outcome is inevitable. I have no fear that my judgment will condemn me, and no fear that I will not choose love. If not now then later, but always, I will choose love.

In fact I was able to laugh at myself even while it was happening. The ego tried to engage me in a little fear and guilt, but I wasn’t interested. I was able to remember that my belief this person should be clean is just an opinion and not truth. I had decided yesterday that I was through with defending my beliefs, and, lo and behold, right away I got a chance to see this decision in action. Now tell me if that isn’t both cool and funny!

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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