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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 2. 3-7-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 2

2 God’s meaning waits in the Kingdom, because that is where He placed it. It does not wait in time. It merely rests in the Kingdom because it belongs there, as you do. How can you who are God’s meaning perceive yourself as absent from it? You can see yourself as separated from your meaning only by experiencing yourself as unreal. This is why the ego is insane; it teaches that you are not what you are. That is so contradictory it is clearly impossible. It is therefore a lesson you cannot really learn, and therefore cannot really teach. Yet you are always teaching. You must, therefore, be teaching something else, even though the ego does not know what it is. The ego, then, is always being undone, and does suspect your motives. Your mind cannot be unified in allegiance to the ego, because the mind does not belong to it. Yet what is “treacherous” to the ego is faithful to peace. The ego’s “enemy” is therefore your friend.

In this paragraph Jesus is talking to me, to the real me, not to the Myron personality self that is the ego manifestation. He says that I cannot teach what is clearly not true, and since I am always teaching I am teaching truth. The ego, which I still identify with to some degree, suspects that I am being disloyal to it and so thinks of me as enemy. My mind will never unite with ego because my mind belongs to God.

From reading this I realize how grateful I am to know that my true self is never going to be lost to the ego self. I am grateful to know that while the ego self is busy teaching ego stuff, that is not me, and I am teaching only truth and doing so all the time. I am, above all else, grateful to know that I belong to God. This paragraph strongly reinforces the truth I am coming to accept; I am not ego and ego does not really exist. I am God’s meaning, residing even now in the Kingdom. I am safe in the knowledge that I am still as God created me.

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Study of the Text, III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 1. 3-6-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom
1 The Holy Spirit teaches one lesson, and applies it to all individuals in all situations. Being conflict-free, He maximises all efforts and all results. By teaching the power of the Kingdom of God Himself, He teaches you that all power is yours. Its application does not matter. It is always maximal. Your vigilance does not establish it as yours, but it does enable you to use it always and in all ways. When I said “I am with you always,” I meant it literally. I am not absent to anyone in any situation. Because I am always with you, you are the way, the truth and the life. You did not make this power, any more than I did. It was created to be shared, and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as belonging to anyone at the expense of another. Such a perception makes it meaningless by eliminating or overlooking its real and only meaning.

I want to look at this paragraph carefully. Here is what I understand.

1. The Holy Spirit teaches one lesson. In studying the Course with its many words, I can easily lose track of this. I am always learning one thing only, that I am one with God, a part of God, in Him and never any place else. Nothing that is not true of God can be true of me. Everything that is true of God is true of me. Because the Holy Spirit teaches only this one thing, there is no conflict and so it applies to everyone and everything and the teaching is therefore, maximized.

2. The Holy Spirit is teaching me that I am powerful. No, that is not right. He is teaching me that all power is mine. All power. The power of God, is mine.  Its application does not matter. The power of God is mine to use regardless of how I choose to use it. I am using the power of God to make up a world that could never be and that is why it seems so real. The implication, of course, is that this same power can easily dispel the illusion according to my desire to be free of it.

3. My vigilance does not establish it as mine. I talk about vigilance all the time. I am vigilant for my thoughts and vigilant for God. Vigilance has gotten me where I am now. But all the vigilance in the world, the most perfect vigilance imaginable does not establish the power of God as mine. Lack of vigilance cannot undo this power which is mine. What vigilance does do, is make this power available to me.

In making the illusory world we blocked out reality, and now we must unblock it. I imagine it as a wall that we made to keep the truth out, and now, block by block I must remove the wall in order to become aware of what is there, always has been there, and will forever be there. It is for this work, the undoing of the ego wall, that I am vigilant. I watch closely for any remaining blocks to the awareness of loves presence.

4. Here is my favorite sentence, maybe my favorite in the whole book. When I said “I am with you always,” I meant it literally. I am not absent to anyone in any situation. I take great comfort in knowing that I am not alone, and since the beginning of my study of the Course I have come to love and trust my elder brother absolutely. What a relief to know that he does not abandon me in any situation I might put myself in.

It is also a comfort to be reminded that we are one. We cannot be separate. Jesus and I and you are all one mind. We are not any of us absent to each other. In this illusion of separation it is hard to know this and so I remind myself often in many ways. When I become discouraged, afraid, angry, even when I am only sad or lethargic, any feeling that is not reflective of God, I have tried to become absent to myself.

This is not possible, but if I believe I can do this, then it will feel as if I have abandoned myself. Any time I feel any of these ungodly things about anyone else, I have tried to abandon them. Even though I cannot do that either, the power that is mine to use in any way I choose will create an illusion so real that I will think I have succeeded, and I will be flooded by guilt for my imagined sin.

I am greatly relieved to know that nothing has actually happened. Jesus is never absent from me and all power is shared equally by all of God’s Son, I am not ever truly absent to myself or to anyone. I have not sinned and I can forgive the idea that sin is possible. We are One. We are God’s Son. We are powerful in our Oneness. What is true is always true, and nothing can change that.

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Study of the Text, II.The Law of the Kingdom, Paragraph 7. 3-5-14

II. The Law of the Kingdom, Paragraph 7
7 What can the perfect consistency of the Kingdom mean to those who are confused? It is apparent that confusion interferes with meaning, and therefore prevents the learner from appreciating it. There is no confusion in the Kingdom, because there is only one meaning. This meaning comes from God and is God. Because it is also you, you share it and extend it as your Creator did. This needs no translation because it is perfectly understood, but it does need extension because it means extension. Communication is perfectly direct and perfectly united. It is totally free, because nothing discordant ever enters. That is why it is the Kingdom of God. It belongs to Him and is therefore like Him. That is its reality, and nothing can assail it.

Within the world there is confusion because there are meanings from which to choose. Because there are meanings we have preferences and so when we don’t get what we prefer we feel unhappy. For instance, I prefer an early bed time and a leisurely morning in which to do my writing before I go to work. When this happens I feel good, but when my plans are thwarted, I feel unhappy.

Because there are meanings we choose one and our brother chooses another and so our differences are further emphasized and instead of being in love, we are in competition. Even within the Course community there is a tendency to interpret A Course in Miracles differently and to defend the interpretation we choose. This leads to conflict and so to unhappiness.

The different meanings vie for our attention and distract and confuse. On every level we are given choices. We have fashion choices, political choices, and relationship choices. We choose what job we want and where we would go on vacation, what we will do with our free time and who we will do it with. It sounds interesting and exciting, but it is actually just distractions to keep us from noticing how unsatisfying and often painful and even tragic our life really is.

We either fight for our meaning or try to enlist other believers to fortify our choice. Whether it is the religion of choice or the political party we prefer, or the cause of the day, we are called to convince others and get them to support our side. If we are for one thing, that implies we are also against the other, which is just war cloaked in righteousness.

It becomes confusing because the more we support, even in our thoughts, one side or another, the more apparent it seems that we should do something. And I am not saying we shouldn’t do something. I am saying, though, that if we do something let it be from love, not from fear of what would happen if we did nothing. Let our actions be guided by One Who will direct us to the next link in the chain of Atonement, rather than by the ego that only wants to win at the expense of the loser.

In this world we think that the right to choose is worth fighting for. I have been making choices for 65 years and I have never made a choice that led to perfect peace. I give up. I surrender the ego’s “right” to choose, and ask the Holy Spirit to choose for me. I see now that I have always chosen one illusion over another and so nothing has actually happened, so why should I expect satisfaction. I see now that filling my mind with endless varieties of nothing is only confusing. Now I make the only choice that involves reality, the only choice for peace. I choose God over ego, and I wait in trust to see how that unfolds.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: II.The Law of the Kingdom, Paragraph 6. 3-4-14

II. The Law of the Kingdom, Paragraph 6

6 No one questions the connection of learning and memory. Learning is impossible without memory since it must be consistent to be remembered. That is why the Holy Spirit’s teaching is a lesson in remembering. I said before that He teaches remembering and forgetting, but the forgetting is only to make the remembering consistent. You forget in order to remember better. You will not understand His translations while you listen to two ways of interpreting them. Therefore you must forget or relinquish one to understand the other. This is the only way you can learn consistency, so that you can finally be consistent.

First I learned to recognize the ego thoughts when they showed up in my mind. Then I learned, through contrast, that these are not the thoughts that I want to believe. I then learned that the Holy Spirit will reinterpret for me if I wish, and that I can let my mind be healed. As I have gone through this process, learning to be very vigilant and very consistent, I have experienced more peace than I ever would have believed possible.

This process works very well until I become confused and listen to both voices. Last night this is what happened to me. I was reading from the Course one of the promises. I had the thought that I am never going to experience this, that if I haven’t succeeded by now it was never going to happen. It felt really discouraging to think about this.

I almost immediately heard the Voice for Truth reassure me that I can trust the words from Jesus and I wanted to believe that. But then the ego voice piped in with its “proof” that I am lost. It reminded me of how long I have been doing this and yet, am I awake? No. Even though I could hear Spirit quietly reassuring me, I could also hear the fear thoughts.

What I did was put on the audio version of the Course and let myself fall asleep listening to the truth. This was my way of making a choice for the Voice I would listen to and believe. It was my way of forgetting the other voice, relinquishing it in favor of the Holy Spirit. I woke up several times during the night to the uplifting words from the Course. This morning one of the first things I did was visit a new group I joined. It is a study of the book, “40 Days with Jesus: Celebrating His Presence” It said, in part:

Concentrate on keeping in step with Me, instead of trying to anticipate My plans for you. If you trust that My plans are to prosper you and not to harm you, you can relax and enjoy the present moment.

And:

Sometimes I grant you glimpses of your glorious future, to encourage you and spur you on. But your main focus should be staying close to Me. I set the pace in keeping with your needs and My purposes.

This was such a perfect answer to my upsetting thoughts! First I cried because I needed to release the tension that was caused when I was at war in my own mind. I know the truth, but when I listened to both voices, and when I gave credence to both of them, I was necessarily confused.

Then I completely let go of the ego thoughts and having been given permission by my choice, the Holy Spirit healed my mind. There is no conflict now. The dark thoughts dissolved as my mind was illuminated. It was a certain and simple thing once my mind was focused on only the one Voice.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: II.The Law of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5. 3-3-14

II. The Law of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5

5 The Holy Spirit’s purpose in translating is exactly the opposite. He translates only to preserve the original meaning in all respects and in all languages. Therefore, He opposes the idea that differences in form are meaningful, emphasizing always that these differences do not matter. The meaning of His message is always the same; only the meaning matters. God’s law of creation does not involve the use of truth to convince His Sons of truth. The extension of truth, which is the law of the Kingdom, rests only on the knowledge of what truth is. This is your inheritance and requires no learning at all, but when you disinherited yourself you became a learner of necessity.

Truth is my inheritance and so nothing was required of me to have truth, and to be truth. But then I chose something else to believe and thus disinherited myself of truth. Now I must learn truth to have it again. This is why I was given A Course in Miracles to help me learn what I have forgotten.

It seems the ego wants only to judge me and condemn me, and then to blame it on my brothers. But ultimately, the ego wants me to be most afraid of the God of its own making, a God that mirrors its own faults. It is the fear of this judgmental and condemning God that keeps me hunkered down in the ego trying to avoid being found by Him. And all the time, God’s boundless love for me blinds Him to my faults. In me He sees only the perfection of His creation, the echo of the Love that He Is.

I think of my life and the ego rolls out the past with its undeniable proof of my faults and my shortcomings. If I can’t stand to look anymore, it gives me a preview of a dismal future in which I am condemned to repeat the past, which follows me with relentless determination that nothing will ever change.

I try to unravel the many problems and regrets and attempt to somehow atone for my sins in a useless attempt to avert the inevitable future the ego has shown me. I become entangled in the complexity of it all. Too many problems. Too much to take in. Too impossible to figure it all out and to somehow make it all right.

And yet, Jesus says that I can bring each of these thorny problems to the Holy Spirit and He will reinterpret them for me. I will then see that there really are not a lot of problems but only this one: I think that I am the ego and that the ego is separate from God, and that God is offended by this perceived separateness.

He reassures me that this cannot be true.  He reminds me that nothing has happened, I am innocent, and that God only knows how to love me. It doesn’t seem to matter how huge my sin or how enormous my fear, the answer never changes; I am innocent and God loves to love me.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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I am the Light.

I’m reading a really wonderful book, Tattoos on the Heart, by Gregory Boyle. He is a Jesuit priest who was pastor of a very poor church in the middle of the barrios in Los Angeles. His congregants are gang members and this book is stories about them, and about God. He buried a lot of these young people, and in one of my favorite stories he was looking for a biblical passage for a young man’s funeral. He decided on the gospel where Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” This is what he says about it.

I like even more what Jesus doesn’t say. He does not say, “One day, if you are more perfect and try really hard, you’ll be light.” He doesn’t say “If you play by the rules, cross your T’s and dot your I’s, then maybe you’ll become light.” He says, straight out, “You are light.” It is the truth of who you are, waiting only for you to discover it. … No need to contort yourself to be anything other than who you are.

I read this yesterday and the words are still lifting me up. So many times during the day I judge myself. I try to contort myself into being the light of the world. I get on the scale and think I am an idiot for eating ice cream last night. I wonder what is wrong with me that I keep doing this. Then I remember. I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world when I weigh less and when I weigh more. I can lose weight if I want to or gain much more, but nothing I do will change what I already am. I am the light of the world.

I try to say the right thing, do the right thing. If I say or do something that doesn’t meet my definition of “right” I will even re-invent the past in my mind so that I sound and look more “right.” But I don’t need to go through these contortions to be right. I am right with God right now, just as I am, even when I don’t know it. The rightness of me is just waiting for me to discover it. It makes me cry when I think of it. I want to cry for the sweetness of it, and for the relief of it. I am the light of the world.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: II.The Law of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4. 3-1-14

II. The Law of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4

4 Laws must be communicated if they are to be helpful. In effect, they must be translated for those who speak different languages. Nevertheless, a good translator, although he must alter the form of what he translates, never changes the meaning. In fact, his whole purpose is to change the form so that the original meaning is retained. The Holy Spirit is the translator of the laws of God to those who do not understand them. You could not do this yourself because a conflicted mind cannot be faithful to one meaning, and will therefore change the meaning to preserve the form.

Jesus, what do you want me to know about this?

Jesus: You speak the language of confusion and complexity, and therefore, the Holy Spirit must translate for you the law, which is clear and simple. He will do this over and over as often as you will allow Him. As you bring to Him the endless variety of thoughts that stream through your mind, He will translate them. In this way, you will begin to see the underlying sameness.

Me: Ok, I understand now. I was thinking the following things, and they left me feeling discouraged.

  I wish I could lose some weight.
  I wonder how I am going to get that credit card paid off.
  I wish I had remembered Barry’s birthday.
  I don’t know why I can’t remember people’s names.
  I hope I don’t lose that customer.

When I noticed that I was suddenly feeling dispirited, and paid attention to the thoughts in my mind, I gave them all to Spirit and asked that He heal my mind. He did not have a different answer for each one. The thought He gave me is that I am deeply loved and cared for. I was given the thought to bring my mind back to the moment and bask in the love that is mine all the time.

When I looked at those thoughts I felt like I had so many problems and when I tried to consider them one at a time, they just got bigger and more complicated. When Holy Spirit looked at them He saw that I had forgotten who I am and He reminded me. There. It’s done. I am at peace.

When I looked at the problems I was looking at forms of the same problem and confusing it with content. While the forms of the problems varied, and they seemed to be about all sorts of things, the content remained that I was simply confused about my identity.

I continually become confused about the difference between content and form because I listen to two voices. When I do that, everything seems uncertain and overwhelming. The Holy Spirit is my interpreter of what I believe, and when I ask Him for help, He makes it all clear and simple.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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