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Study of Text, Chapter 11: VIII: The Problem and the Answer, P 15. 12-18-15

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 15
15 Would you not exchange your fears for truth, if the exchange is yours for the asking? For if God is not deceived in you, you can be deceived only in yourself. Yet you can learn the truth about yourself from the Holy Spirit, Who will teach you that, as part of God, deceit in you is impossible. When you perceive yourself without deceit, you will accept the real world in place of the false one you have made. And then your Father will lean down to you and take the last step for you, by raising you unto Himself.

Journal
I have an image I have made that I think of as “me.” It is described by all the words I use after “I am.” I am a woman, a mother, a sales person, a minister. I am the very many concepts that are part of that description. I am one who has fought depression many years of her life, one who has been scarred by events in her past, one who is not good with money and so has certain experiences and can expect more of the same.

This image is many layered and very complex, and seems to be the “me” I present to the world, and the image I think of as myself, and so I seem to feel a need to defend it. The only reason I still have any of these ideas of self in my mind is because I defend them against change, as if defending this image is my salvation.

What Jesus wants me to know is that I defend nothing.  These are just thoughts, they are not what I am. When I believe any of them, even the very nice ones, the thoughtful and kind image, the loving and generous image, I am deceived in myself. None of it is me. I can stop defending this image because I am something else and when I stop defending the false idea of “me” the Holy Spirit will reveal my true self to me.

I need to know my true self before I can return to God. If God were to lean down toward me now I cannot imagine my reaction. “I am unworthy” is such a strong belief in my mind that the idea of being raised unto God is more frightening than appealing. So I practice what I am learning in A Course in Miracles. I open my mind and heart to the Holy Spirit and invite Him to teach me my true nature. I am being prepared for that last step.

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Study of Text, Chapter 11, VIII.The Problem and the Answer, P1 4. 12-17-15

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 14

14 You, my child, are afraid of your brothers and of your Father and of yourself. But you are merely deceived in them. Ask what they are of the Teacher of Reality, and hearing His answer, you too will laugh at your fears and replace them with peace. For fear lies not in reality, but in the minds of children who do not understand reality. It is only their lack of understanding that frightens them, and when they learn to perceive truly they are not afraid. And because of this they will ask for truth again when they are frightened. It is not the reality of your brothers or your Father or yourself that frightens you. You do not know what they are, and so you perceive them as ghosts and monsters and dragons. Ask what their reality is from the One Who knows it, and He will tell you what they are. For you do not understand them, and because you are deceived by what you see you need reality to dispel your fears.

Journal
Jesus says I am afraid of my brothers, of my Father and of myself because I don’t know who they are. As I remember that there are only two emotions, love and fear, I know that my anger, jealousy, guilt and other negative emotions are really only different forms that fear takes. I am not afraid of them because of what they are, but because I misunderstand what they are. I am wrong about them if I feel anything but joy when I think of them, but that can be corrected.

The problem lies in who I ask for clarity. If I ask the ego, I will get a fearful answer. If I ask the Teacher of Reality, I will remember who they are and I will rejoice in that knowledge. My experience of this is that I receive the truth about our identity and I am so happy. Then I back away from that truth and asking the ego, I find I am again judging and so suffering. But as I continue this practice I lose interest in the ego judgment and I find it easier to ignore it when I hear it.

My guidance right now is to ask, “Who am I?” I am to do this regardless of where I see the error. If I think my brother is wrong, I ask the Holy Spirit, “Who am I?” As I remember who I am, I know my brother’s true identity.

“The idea that there is some “other” to want, to need, to resent, to hate, to fear, or any “other” onto whom I could project guilt is burnt away in the light of purpose. Everyone is my brother/my self. Everything is in me. How can I be angry or fearful or guilty when I realize that every one and every thing is me?” http://tinyurl.com/nbspa3y

This is why I need only heal my mind. I am the world, my brother, and I am what my Father is. As I know that I am innocent, I know that all else is innocent. This is what the Holy Spirit is teaching me. The ego is pushing hard against this, and while I hear the ego, I refuse to believe it.

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Study of Text, Chapter 11: VIII: The Problem and the Answer, P 13. 12-15-15

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 13

13 Children perceive frightening ghosts and monsters and dragons, and they are terrified. Yet if they ask someone they trust for the meaning of what they perceive, and are willing to let their own interpretations go in favor of reality, their fear goes with them. When a child is helped to translate his “ghost” into a curtain, his “monster” into a shadow, and his “dragon” into a dream he is no longer afraid, and laughs happily at his own fear.

Journal
I would become as a child and allow my frightening dreams to be re-interpreted for me by the Holy Spirit. I would not argue with His interpretation, nor doubt it. I would but accept it in complete trust that He knows what I have forgotten. It seems too often that I hear the ego first, and sometimes still believe what I hear. When this happens I have tried to follow ego’s instructions as a solution to my problem and this only kept me in the problem. Now I choose to practice listening to Holy Spirit daily until my first choice becomes Holy Spirit rather than ego.

I still believe in fear and guilt, but I am willing to let those beliefs be healed. I do this through practice. All day, every day, I practice vigilance and I practice choosing again. I ask for the Atonement and I accept it as best as I can. Each effort on my part increases my willingness. This is the best use of time until finally we release the idea of time. The best use of the stories is to let them be seen differently until the mind is healed of guilt and fear. And then the stories change to stories of love, until they are finally released completely.

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Study of Text, Chapter 11: VIII: The Problem and the Answer, P 12. 12-14-15

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 12

12 If you perceive offense in a brother pluck the offense from your mind, for you are offended by Christ and are deceived in Him. Heal in Christ and be not offended by Him, for there is no offense in Him. If what you perceive offends you, you are offended in yourself and are condemning God’s Son whom God condemneth not. Let the Holy Spirit remove all offenses of God’s Son against himself and perceive no one but through His guidance, for He would save you from all condemnation. Accept His healing power and use it for all He sends you, for He wills to heal the Son of God, in whom He is not deceived

Journal
If my brother offends me it can only be that I believe in the illusion I see rather than in his reality, and that I am interpreting that illusion according to my own skewed beliefs. My solution is to allow my own mind to be healed. Then I will see differently and I will interpret according to the Holy Spirit. I will recognize the Christ in my brother and in so doing I will heal both him and myself.

No matter what I do or think or say, the Holy Spirit knows the truth of my nature. He knows I was created by God, like God, and that this cannot be altered, not even by the seemingly endless dreams of separation. I can wrack up lifetime after lifetime of unreal experiences, but nothing changes. I am still holy, still perfect innocence.

The Holy Spirit, through His unwavering certainty, saves me, and all of us, from all condemnation. I accept His healing power as He sends it to me, and I offer it to my brothers in place of my offense. As I allow the Holy Spirit to remove all offenses from my mind, I am free to offer this healing to everyone sent to me for that purpose. I am a link in the chain of forgiveness that frees us all.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11: VIII: The Problem and the Answer, P 11. 12-11-15

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 11

11 Do not accept your brother’s variable perception of himself for his split mind is yours, and you will not accept your healing without his. For you share the real world as you share Heaven, and his healing is yours. To love yourself is to heal yourself, and you cannot perceive part of you as sick and achieve your goal. Brother, we heal together as we live together and love together. Be not deceived in God’s Son, for he is one with himself and one with his Father. Love him who is beloved of his Father, and you will learn of the Father’s Love for you.

Journal
I am deceived in my brother if I believe anything about him that is not the truth, anything that is not what God created. I can see the ego behavior, but if I believe that he is his behavior, then I am deceived in him, and will be deceived in myself, and God as well, since we are one. I was reading an earlier entry in my journal this morning and came across this.

This is what I want. I want to see each person with the same vision I see my children. No matter what my children do or say, I know they are wonderful. I know they are perfect beneath their behavior. Their behavior is an illusion based on false beliefs and has nothing to do with who they are. It is insignificant next to their reality.

If they behave badly, I disregard it, and continue to see only the love that they are. Now that I have become very good at this, I am learning to see others in the same way. This is one of the ways that I am removing the blocks that keep me from remembering God and remembering my Self.

What I had written about how I see my children is an example of seeing with Christ Vision, and it is the way I want to see everyone. In seeing others in this way, I am healing them and healing myself. Healing does not require that anything be changed, only that we learn to choose to see what is actually there rather than the illusion we see when we judge.

Jesus tells us this very often throughout the Course. I don’t always do this. Sometimes I choose to believe my judgments, and when this happens forgiveness is needed. I need to forgive what I see and what I think so that we might both experience healing. This is the way healing occurs, and it is a miracle.

For this to be successful, I must accept that there are to be no exceptions in my life. Everyone, regardless of their behavior, and regardless of my ego interpretations of their behavior, is a perfect and holy Son of God. I must be willing to accept, without compromise, the healing of my mind that the Holy Spirit offers me. I must learn that I want this by asking for it and accepting it.

Jesus says that I must learn to love myself and that I cannot love myself if I don’t love my brother. I have noticed that it is impossible to love my brother if I don’t love myself. If I am feeling bad about myself, guilty or afraid, I project onto my brother and attack him for my feelings. So what do I do when I am caught in this cycle?

Actually, it is simple. I just jump in wherever I notice the error. I ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of whatever error I notice, and I accept His healing as quickly as I can. I trust that all will be undone, my judgment against myself and my judgment against my brother, because they are the same thing, really.

And here is my favorite sentence in this paragraph. “Brother, we heal together as we live together and love together.” I recognize this as both necessary and beautiful. I want this to be my reality all the time, so I am going to use it as a sweet reminder whenever I am tempted to be deceived in my brother.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11, VIII.The Problem and the Answer, P 10. 10-9-15

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 10

10 In the real world there is no sickness, for there is no separation and no division. Only loving thoughts are recognized, and because no one is without your help, the Help of God goes with you everywhere. As you become willing to accept this Help by asking for It, you will give It because you want It. Nothing will be beyond your healing power, because nothing will be denied your simple request. What problems will not disappear in the Presence of God’s Answer? Ask, then, to learn of the reality of your brother, because this is what you will perceive in him, and you will see your beauty reflected in his.

Journal
“In the real world there is no sickness, for there is no separation and no division.” So sickness is caused by separation and division, and in the real world, the world we attain as we awaken, there is no thought of separation or division and so there is no sickness. Sickness takes many forms. For instance there are sick relationships, relationships that are special, that are dysfunctional, that are “giving to get” relationships.

There are sick finances, the idea that lack is real and that one is so guilty that one deserves lack and loss. If we believe in lack and loss, then it will take form in the world and sometimes that will look like financial poverty, and sometimes it will look like a poverty of love, or of health. All these are just different forms of the belief in separation, the belief we could be separate from and different from our Creator.

As we allow these false thoughts to be corrected, we wake up from these beliefs and we see the world differently. What used to look like attack now seems to be merely the effect of a confused mind, and behind that confusion is perfect innocence. This is an indication, I think, that the world is shifting from sickness to a healed world, a happy world, a real world. It all happens within the mind because that is where everything exists.

“As you become willing to accept this Help by asking for It, you will give It because you want It.” All help comes through the Holy Spirit in our mind, and to receive that Help we need only ask for It. We can and are encouraged to ask all the time in every circumstance. Because I pay attention and am vigilant for the thoughts of ego that show up in my mind, I see them all the time. It can feel discouraging unless I turn to the Holy Spirit for It’s Help.

Sometimes I need to stop for just a moment and sit in silence as I wait for the healing I desire. I’m not good at silence, my mind is still too unruly for that, but evidently it doesn’t take the Holy Spirit long to do Its job. I accept the Help, and my mind becomes healed of some aspect of wrong minded thinking, and I am free until I notice another thought that still has meaning for me. When I value anything I am attracted to it and my belief in it makes it real for me. That is why I need help to release it, and all I need to do is want the help, want the release, and then accept it when it is offered.

“Nothing will be beyond your healing power, because nothing will be denied your simple request. What problems will not disappear in the Presence of God’s Answer?” There are no exceptions to God’s healing through His Answer, so I make no exceptions in what I ask. All errors are to be healed, no compromise in this.
I understand that the problem is the thought and belief behind the problem, the belief that is the cause of the effect I experience in my life. So as I become aware of the problem through paying attention to my feelings, I follow that problem to the belief that sourced it. For instance, if I am angry at someone, I ask the Holy Spirit for clarity about this, and He shows me my judgment which helps me to see the belief.

Or I become aware of what it is that this feeling triggers in me. Maybe I feel neglected or unfairly treated. Then I know that the feeling that I wanted to experience is of being neglected or abandoned, or unfairly treated. Once I know what it is that I want, I see the belief that caused it, the belief in unfairness, neglect, abandonment, which is just the belief that I am separate from God and His Creation, and then I can ask for God’s Answer to undo this.

“Ask, then, to learn of the reality of your brother, because this is what you will perceive in him, and you will see your beauty reflected in his.” Always, always, we come to this. To be healed, I must desire healing for all. I am never healed alone. The healing of the mind reveals my beauty but it must be revealed in my brother or I will remain unaware of it in myself.

My anger or frustration, any emotion that indicates I have judged my brother, is an indication that my mind needs to be healed. I am fully cognizant that it is never about him no matter how much proof I come up with to justify my judgment. The same thing applies to seeing my brother sick or poor or heartbroken. If I believe these things are him, I will block my own freedom.

I am learning that “caring” about my brother’s condition is not love. It is hate. It is sickness on my part. It is a sign that my mind remains sick and needs God’s Answer to heal it. When my mind looks on a sick brother and sees only a confused mind, I know that I am getting better. I know that my mind is healing.

When I look past his confusion and see only the beauty and magnificence that is his true nature, I know my mind is healed. I have had moments of this and am speaking from experience. I have not yet been able to hold onto this or see clearly in every case, so I know that I am not done. But I am willing, and so I continue to practice. I continue to ask for His Answer and to accept It as I can.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11: VIII: The Problem and the Answer, P 9. 12-8-15

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 9

9 Ask anything of God’s Son and his Father will answer you, for Christ is not deceived in His Father and His Father is not deceived in Him. Do not, then, be deceived in your brother, and see only his loving thoughts as his reality, for by denying that his mind is split you will heal yours. Accept him as his Father accepts him and heal him unto Christ, for Christ is his healing and yours. Christ is the Son of God Who is in no way separate from His Father, Whose every thought is as loving as the Thought of His Father by which He was created. Be not deceived in God’s Son, for thereby you must be deceived in yourself. And being deceived in yourself you are deceived in your Father, in Whom no deceit is possible.

Journal
Jesus says that when I believe something about our brother that is not true, then I believe the same about myself, and I am deceived in my Father as well. If I look at a sick brother and believe in his sickness, then I am deceived in him. If I hear him say something that seems misguided and believe in his confusion, then I am deceived in him. He is the Son of God and thus he has the truth in him and all else is an illusion. Let me see the truth rather than the illusion.

What I see in my brother I will see in myself. If I believe in sickness, for instance, it is inevitable that I will experience sickness because what I believe, is true for myself. If I think that someone attacks me, I believe in attack. I will then defend myself, and inevitably attack others. This is how we maintain the illusion, by believing in it.

Since I am created by God and thus forever a part of God, when I see something in my brother or myself that is not God, this is perceived in my mind as an attack on God. It feels like I am pulling myself out of God all over again. Or it feels like I redefining God, making Him something I want him to be, it feels like I am making myself creator of God. This necessarily triggers fear and guilt.

What a perfect reading for me this morning. I read a posting on Facebook that I strongly disagreed with. It felt like an attack on me because I saw it as an attack on my beliefs. Even as these thoughts were appearing in my mind, I knew they were nonsense. First, I saw that I had a strong personal opinion that I was defending as a truth. I saw the error in that. I don’t really know anything, and my assumptions are not the truth, so why would I want to defend them?

Second, I am not my beliefs, so why was I seeing this seeming attack on my beliefs as an attack on me? Obviously, I really do believe I am my beliefs. I let myself feel this reaction fully without trying to cover it up with the spiritual truths that I have learned. I noticed how fiercely I defended myself and how much rage was hiding behind the veil my spiritual ego uses to pretend it is a nice ego, too nice to be enraged.

I tried to push the attack thoughts aside. I tried to say that now that I see them, I can reject them and they will be gone. But they just kept popping up in words that sounded different, but were equally deceptive. This felt scary to me because what was I to do if I couldn’t let this go? Reading this paragraph helped a lot. I don’t want to be deceived in my brother, in myself or in God. I don’t want to believe that deception is in my brother or me and I certainly don’t want to believe it is in God.

I asked the Holy Spirit to heal my mind. I accepted the Atonement in this situation. Another way to say it is that I forgave myself and my error. I forgave my brother and my fear that in my ignorance I had offended God. The Holy Spirit wiped my mind clear of the offense. The facts are still there. I read what this person wrote, but there is no need for it to be different. There is nothing in me that wants to respond or correct or convince. In this situation, I am not deceived in my brother. As it turned out, the error was in my mind, not his, and it has been undone. I am free.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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