Together, We Light the Way

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

Study of Text, Chapter 13:The Guiltlessness Son of God P 8. 6-14-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 8
8 The Atonement has always been interpreted as the release from guilt, and this is correct if it is understood. Yet even when I interpret it for you, you may reject it and do not accept it for yourself. You have perhaps recognized the futility of the ego and its offerings, but though you do not want them, you may not yet look upon the alternative with gladness. In the extreme, you are afraid of redemption and you believe it will kill you. Make no mistake about the depth of this fear. For you believe that, in the presence of truth you might turn on yourself and destroy yourself.

Journal
Jesus says that we should not mistake the depth of the fear we have of redemption. I am not in touch with that, at least not on the level he is talking about, but I accept that he is right. He says that the Atonement is the release from guilt, and so redemption means that there will be no belief in guilt in my mind. I can have that. It is being offered to me and so all I have to do is accept it. Incredibly I resist letting go of guilt.

I find myself guilty for a myriad of things. I do let them go when I notice them, but the idea of guilt is persistent in my mind. I also find others guilty, and sometimes it is hard for me to let that go. But if I want to be free, I must let all guilt, whatever form it takes, be removed from my mind. That doesn’t mean I must look at each form, but it does mean I must look at these individual forms of guilt and let them go one at a time until I am fully convinced that guilt is an illusion.

Guilt is such a heavy burden to carry around that it is amazing I have the stamina to make it through the day. In this section on guilt I have talked about some of the ways guilt finds a stronghold in my mind. One I am thinking about now is that when I think someone should act or speak differently, I am assigning guilt. And if I don’t forgive this idea about a person, I will continue to find fault so that I can justify my failure to forgive. I will gather proof that this person is guilty and the more I do this, the heavier my burden.

My work place situation has changed suddenly and radically. I have found myself resisting this change, and the more I resist it, the angrier I become. This is a form of guilt, this belief that circumstances should not have changed. The world is guilty of making me unhappy, is what I am really saying. Blaming it on the circumstances was just the beginning. Because blame and guilt were building in my mind, I began to see everything that happened at work through the lens of blame and guilt.

I started looking at my coworkers as enemies instead of helpers. When someone quit suddenly yesterday, I felt betrayed and abandoned. It is funny really, how I saw his actions, not as a positive step for his career, but as an affront to me. But this is what happens when we start looking at the world from a place of fear and guilt. All things start to look like an attack, and all our brothers start to look like enemies.

When this particular person resigned yesterday, I felt such a strong reaction that I had to go into my office and let myself cry. It was particularly hard because I had let guilt build in me to the point that it was affecting me physically and emotionally. This resignation was like the straw that broke the camels back. But it was also the straw that broke the ego’s back, or at least that was so apparently an ego effect that I decided it was time to undo this thinking. So I began to pull my attention away from the story and look at it as mistaken beliefs in my mind.

Since I am working with the Rules for Decision right now, I used this wonderful tool to help me. I began by realizing that I felt like I did about Lee’s resignation because of a decision I made. I make decisions continuously and usually don’t even realize I did so. I brought my attention to this particular decision, and asked the Holy Spirit to help me see clearly what happened. I had started the day by deciding to make no decisions on my own, and I had decided with Holy Spirit that the day would be one in which I would see Christ in everyone. So what happened?

When I discovered that Lee had resigned, without even realizing I had done it, I asked the ego to interpret this situation for me. We always ask either ego or Holy Spirit to help us with our decisions, and this time I had asked ego. This is not really surprising since I had been so embroiled with the belief in guilt, and guilt always causes fear. The ego advised me that Lee quitting was an attack on me, just another example of how unfairly life is treating me.

I asked the ego what the situation meant, and since I was already looking for proof of guilt, I bought into the ego’s interpretation and Jesus tells us in the Rules for Decision that this is our major problem now. We still make up our mind and then decide what we should do. Here is why this is such a big problem. Once I decided (with ego) that my problem was being abandoned and betrayed, I was expecting an answer to the problem as I now saw it.

Holy Spirit is not going to answer that problem because he knows I cannot be abandoned and betrayed. He knows that no one is guilty because guilt is an illusion. Since He is not going to answer the problem as I see it, His answer is not going to satisfy me. In fact it made me feel attacked and angry. It was as if the Holy Spirit was also abandoning and betraying me. So in order to free myself of this misery I was in, I had to correct my thinking.

So I started the process as Jesus instructs. I reminded myself of the day I wanted when I began my morning. This anger and upset was not part of the plan. So I realized I must have asked a question by myself (that is, with ego) and I must have set an answer in my terms.  I cancelled all that out, when I said: I have no question. I forgot what to decide. This meant that I had asked the question, what does this mean? And I had forgot to decide with Holy Spirit. So, cancel, cancel. ~smile~

Because I had waited too long to do this, I had already gotten angry and afraid of a different version, a different question, a different answer. So I had to go through the rest of the steps. I next realized that at least I could decide that I didn’t like how I felt. And man, was that the truth! Just thinking about how I felt made me so sorry for myself that I cried again. So I admitted that I hoped I had been wrong.

Now that I had gone this far, I began to feel hopeful. I wasn’t having any change forced on me; I was choosing a change. This change was my idea and was going to help me. This bit of wisdom helped me to take the next step. I could honestly say that I wanted another way to look at this. Now that I had changed my mind about the day and remembered what I really wanted, I felt better and ready to take the final step.

I said: Perhaps there is another way to look at this. What can I lose by asking? I was so relieved by this time that I felt like I was coming out of a dark and gloomy day into the light. I was very ready to ask. I let my mind rest in God for a moment to clear it of any residual upset and then I turned it all around. In deciding with God, instead of ego, I felt such love and appreciation for Lee, that I wanted only what was best for him. He had been such a good help to me for a long time. I thought how lucky I was to have worked with him for all these years and so gotten to know and admire him.

Another thought that was given me by my Adviser is that I was mistaken in my belief I needed Lee to stay. And this reminded me of The Work by Byron Katie and so my mind went immediately to the four questions and the turn around. I had thought that I needed Lee to stay. I turned this around to realize that I did not need him to stay. Another turnaround is that I needed him to leave. The Holy Spirit showed me how both these turnarounds is true. 

With a clear mind I was back on track to the day I decided on, and my mind was freer of guilt that it had been before. Each time I do this I experience some transfer of learning and I will continue to undo the guilt in my mind until that transfer of learning is complete and I no longer believe in guilt.

This healing process of Rules for Decision is like a condensed version of all the processes of A Course in Miracles. I highly recommend a deep study of this. It has benefited me so much. In fact, I have found it so helpful that I am offering a weekend workshop in Portland OR in July. It will be an intimate group of students studying and practicing this process so that when they leave they will have a strong foundation in using it. If you are interested in doing this for yourself, check out the details at http://forgivenessisthewayhome.org/events/

© 2016, 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 Text, Chapter 13:The Guiltlessness Son of God P 7. 6-13-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 7
7 This course has explicitly stated that its goal for you is happiness and peace. Yet you are afraid of it. You have been told again and again that it will set you free, yet you sometimes react as if it is trying to imprison you. You often dismiss it more readily than you dismiss the ego’s thought system. To some extent, then, you must believe that by not learning the course you are protecting yourself. And you do not realize that it is only your guiltlessness that can protect you.

Journal
My immediate thought was that this could not be true for me anymore. Surely, I am not afraid of peace and happiness. I know this used to be true, but not now. I am not resisting the Course, I don’t think it is imprisoning me. I want this and I practice it and make it part of my life so this could not possibly apply to me. Sigh. Then I asked Jesus how this applies to me.

I was resistant to this but I also wanted to look at it. So Jesus helped me out by doing this slowly, a step at a time. He knows I learn from concrete examples so he used one that has been in my life for a long time. First he reminded me of today’s lesson in which I included a conversation with Holy Spirit about body image. Then he brought my attention to the thoughts I had this morning about my body. I had to shop for clothes yesterday and this brought to my attention that I have gained more weight than I realized. I had to buy a larger size.

As I looked in the mirror I thought about losing weight and I felt my familiar confusion about what that means. Should I even care? If so, does trying to lose weight through adjusting my eating habits make sense? After all, this is a matter of beliefs being projected outward. Shouldn’t I focus on changing my beliefs, and if so, how do I do that? I am not happy and I am not at peace.

So then Jesus directed me to this paragraph again. As I read it, I realized that I did not really want an answer about how to see this body image problem. I don’t want to be told that it is not important. Not even if accepting it as not important would bring me back to peace and happiness. I don’t want to be imprisoned in this bigger body, so the words of the Course seem to be imprisoning me.

And what does this have to do with guilt anyway? Well, when I asked, I realized that I feel guilty for being overweight and guilty for caring, and guilty for wanting to change that and guilty for resisting a different way to see. Ok. I see the guilt. Ha ha. So what is next, Jesus? What do you want me to notice now? I was then brought to something Cate Grieves posted on her Timeline and I shared on mine because it felt so meaningful to me, and yet was something I resist. Here is what it said.

“The lack of everything – money, love, friends, health is caused by the mind believing there is a “self” that “cannot have something it wants.”

Ok, this applies. I believe that I lack a body image that appeals to me and so I think I cannot have something I want. More importantly, I think there is a “self” that wants this, and that is the real problem. I believe in that self and think it is me. Then she said:

“The self we think we are doesn’t exist. It’s made up by the mind. So on the chance you actually get more of what you want, the mind will go straight back into belief of lack. Because the mind (ego) is the cause. The belief that there is a you that needs something is the cause.”

Oh man. Talk about conflicted thinking! I know this is true. I understand this. I don’t want it to be true, and yet I do want it to be true. Yikes! Ok, this self I think of as me, which includes the body of Myron, is not me. I made it up, body and all, as well as the belief that it cannot have what it thinks it wants. As long as I keep the belief in lack, it will continue to manifest in this story of Myron, including in the body of Myron.

I know this is true because I have watched it occur over and over throughout this lifetime. I don’t want this to be true because it would mean I would have to look at the body thing differently, and I just want to go on a diet and lose weight. I want it to be true because if it is, I might can learn to see differently and this lifetime problem will be over, and I will be free of it, and happy and peaceful. See my problem? I am conflicted.

Cate ends this message in this way.

“If there was no story of “you” needing anything, everything would be just provided in this moment and the unchangeable awareness that is you, would be still and happy and just expressing love. Because there is nothing to do or get.”

And my one track ego mind skips the whole wonderful true me and the thought that comes from it is, “Does this mean I will be thinner or that I will have to be fat?” Holy cow. What a mind that ego is. Missed the point, Myron? But I see that I really want what is offered in that last paragraph. I want to be free of the belief in lack. I want to feel like and respond from, the true self. I want to live as my true self, so I am willing to do this. How do I do it, Jesus?

The next thought that comes into my mind from Jesus is to use the Rules for Decision. I feel some strong resistance to this and I know that it is because this will make a real difference and I am still not certain I want this change. At least I am still conflicted about it. I still want it and don’t want it. But I am going to do it anyway. So here goes.

When I look in the mirror I feel dissatisfied and unhappy. I feel judged and found wanting and I want to change the mirror image until it is something that makes me feel worthy. I recognize that this assessment is coming from the ego mind. This means I asked the ego for its judgment. As usual the ego finds me guilty and I have accepted its judgment of guilt.

But I remember that I don’t want to judge the situation because I don’t want to set the rules about how I react to it. As long as I decide what this image in the mirror means and what it is for, I will react in a certain way. I will have made up my mind and then asked what I should do. That is when I get the thought that this image means I lack and am unworthy. From that judgment, I decide the thing to do is to lose weight and so feel worthy again.

I recognize this as ego, and I have tried this solution so often that I know for sure it is going to work only briefly, if at all. So now I am going change my mind to something that will work. I am going to cancel this judgment, and I am going to ask the Holy Spirit to advise me, rather than listening to ego. Jesus says to do this step by step and not to skip any of them.

The first step, the cancellation, says this:

I have no question. I forgot what to decide.

I thought I knew the question, based on the ego judgment. The question was, what do I change to get the appearance that I want? But I am cancelling out that question because I forgot to decide to ask the Holy Spirit for his interpretation of the problem.

The next step is very gentle and non-confrontational.

At least I can decide I do not like what I feel now.

As I sit with that idea, I realize how true it is. I feel bad about myself. I feel unworthy and helpless. I feel like the situation is hopeless because I never solve it for more than a short period of time. I feel like a failure and I feel guilty. No, I don’t like how I feel.

The next step is also easy, and is a natural progression from the previous step.

And so I hope I have been wrong.

I sit with that one, too, and I see that I can say this and believe it. I do hope I have been wrong about how I see this. The only way I can feel better is if I have been wrong. It is a small step but it does open me to the possibility of something else.

The next step is a further opening to something else, another small step in that direction.

I want another way to look at this.

Right now I think my problem is how much I weigh. I think that what I see in the mirror defines me and not in a good way. I think that I am in a hopeless situation. But I don’t like how this makes me feel and so I hope I have been wrong about this assessment. I want another way to look at this. Yes, I really do want another way, though looking in the mirror I can’t think what that would be. Still, if there is another way, I want it.

The next step doesn’t ask me to be certain or even to understand. It only asks that I take a step through the small opening I have made in my mind.

Perhaps there is another way to look at this. What can I lose by asking?

I sat with this and I realized that Jesus is asking for just a small willingness, a little bit of trust that he knows what he is doing and that he wants me to be happy. He doesn’t want me to sacrifice anything, just to consider that I am wrong about what I think the sacrifice would be.

I am not going to think about this too much, because the ego mind would like to draw me back in to the habitual way of thinking, and that does not make me happy. I am willing to consider that not only am I not guilty for the body I have projected, but that I have never been guilty. I am willing to believe there is another way to see this and that it would be good for me to know what that is.

I am also going to do the Rules for Decision on the idea that there is no “me” that needs anything, being a scary thought. I have been very attached to the idea of a self that wants and a self that cannot have. I accept as a concept that I made this up and that there is a “me” that is real, but I am uncertain about what this feels like if fully known as reality. I tell myself that this is not a problem. I know I am not the ego. I know that I am spirit. But I act like an ego, and I often live my life in fear, guilt and lack, so I have not let that little self go. I am going to explore that fear as well.

© 2016, 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 Text, Chapter 13: II.The Guiltless Son of God, P 6. 6-9-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 6
6 I have said that the crucifixion is the symbol of the ego. When it was confronted with the real guiltlessness of God’s Son it did attempt to kill him, and the reason it gave was that guiltlessness is blasphemous to God. To the ego, the ego is God, and guiltlessness must be interpreted as the final guilt that fully justifies murder. You do not yet understand that any fear you may experience in connection with this course stems ultimately from this interpretation, but if you will consider your reactions to it you will become increasingly convinced that this is so.

Journal
I have a customer who thinks that being religious means fearing God. He feels strongly about this and utterly believes that God wants his fear and so, whether he thinks this out or not, to him, God is a scary dude. When I hear him talk about it I see that this God of his is really the ego definition of God. He has nothing to do with the God of Love I am getting to know.

I am pretty sure if I asked my customer about guilt, he would embrace it with great enthusiasm since it would enhance his belief that God wants his fear. Doubtless he wears his guilt like a badge of honor, as he does his fear. If I were to say to him that I am guiltless he would be appalled at my audacity and would probably worry about my salvation. So I understand what Jesus is saying here. Now I am wondering how this applies to me in my everyday life.

I don’t have those conscious beliefs about God, and to the extent I used to, I have overcome them. But unconscious guilt is still in my mind, just hiding out a bit. I see it when I “wish things were different.” And when I think someone should be or act differently. I see it when I feel regret or shame. I see it when I punish myself through making the body sick. And there it is, the fear of God peeking is peeking out. Let me punish myself before God does.

All resistance to this Course is guilt and fear. I think I don’t have any more resistance and then I come across something I don’t understand. This is very simple stuff and quite understandable by all who want to understand it. When I don’t understand some part of it, I step back and wait for the Holy Spirit to help me accept. He will remove my fear and my guilt if that is my desire. He does it often, so I know this is true. Then understanding dawns fully upon my willing mind.

© 2016, 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 Text, Chapter 13: II.The Guiltless Son of God, P 5. 6-8-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 5

5 In the calm light of truth, let us recognize that you believe you have crucified God’s Son. You have not admitted to this “terrible” secret because you would still wish to crucify him if you could find him. Yet the wish has hidden him from you because it is very fearful, and so you are afraid to find him. You have handled this wish to kill yourself by not knowing who you are, and identifying with something else. You have projected guilt blindly and indiscriminately, but you have not uncovered its source. For the ego does want to kill you, and if you identify with it you must believe its goal is yours.

Journal
I have family members who are atheists, and I often think that they have put themselves in a bad place. They don’t know God and so don’t know themselves. This is very frightening even if they don’t understand the cause of the unease. More frightening perhaps, since they are uneasy but don’t know why. But really, are they any different than me? I say I believe in God, but do I know God? And if I don’t know God, I don’t know myself. The only difference perhaps is that I know there is a problem.

As I understand this, Jesus says that we tell ourselves that we don’t know who we are and that we are afraid to know. Instead we claim a different identity, we identify with something else. That something else is the ego, and the ego wants to kill us. We are the Son of God, and so we, in effect, identifying with the ego, believe we want to kill our self. This has caused a great deal of fear and guilt which we project blindly and indiscriminately, never understanding why, really.

So whether I believe in God or am an atheist, I still suffer from an identity crisis. And I also suffer from hidden but intense guilt and fear. Happiness, peace, innocence and freedom are antithesis to me. I may not remember why I am guilty, but I am aware of the guilt. I cannot possibly be worthy of these lofty aspirations. Instead I spend my life in an effort to crucify the Son of God.

That seems pretty harsh, but if I examine my life carefully I see that it must be true. I see evidence of unworthiness. I see a heart black with guilt, and I witness the futile effort to rid myself of the resultant guilt through self-punishment, or through projection. No wonder I deny what Jesus has to say about my innocence and about God’s love for me. Who am I to accept these gifts? Who is this God that gives without condition? I don’t know either God or His Son.

I have been studying and practicing the Course, though. I have been slowly giving up the source of this all pervasive guilt, and even more slowly I have come to believe in a God of Love even if I have not yet completely accepted that this love is for me. Each time I see guilt in the mind, and each time that I deny its reality, I come closer to remembering who I am and accepting God as my Father. Through the denial of guilt in all its forms I am learning to deny the ego rather than God.

© 2016, 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 Text, Chapter 13: II.The Guiltless Son of God, P 4. 6-7-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 4

4 Much of the ego’s strange behavior is directly attributable to its definition of guilt. To the ego, the guiltless are guilty. Those who do not attack are its “enemies” because, by not valuing its interpretation of salvation, they are in an excellent position to let it go. They have approached the darkest and deepest cornerstone in the ego’s foundation, and while the ego can withstand your raising all else to question, it guards this one secret with its life, for its existence depends on keeping this secret. So it is this secret that we must look upon, for the ego cannot protect you against truth, and in its presence the ego is dispelled.

Journal
So the ego sees us as guilty of “egocide” when we think we are guiltless. Jeez. Accepting that Jesus is right and guilt is an illusion and doesn’t exist at all, would undo the ego. It seems so simple and obvious that I don’t know what else to write. But I also know that that even as I sit here writing this, I am so annoyed with Microsoft Word and with Windows 10 that I could scream. What else is that except guilt. I find these companies to be guilty. I wish the repairmen on the road would move on down. The noise is distracting. Instead, I wish I was at my house listening to the birds sing to me as I write this. Wishing things were different is just another way of judging and finding guilt.

Guilt shows up in many ways and some of those ways seem valuable to me. I will learn to live with Windows 10 and I will adjust to the noise outside, but it took me years to let go of the grievance against my ex-husband. That seemed hard even though there is no hierarchy of illusions, and so it is no different than the noisy repairmen. It seems harder only because I valued the grievance against my ex more than I value the grievance against the repairmen.

The truth is, we must give up guilt in all its forms if we are to undo the ego. So I do what I can. I notice guilty thoughts and I remember that the peace of God is everything I want. Do I want my ex husband to be guilty, or do I want the peace of God? Do I want the morning to be filled with the songs of birds rather than the noise of street construction? Or do I want the peace of God? If the peace of God is everything I want, then I must decide. As I decide for the peace of God, guilt is undone because there is no guilt in peace. As the guilt is undone, so is the ego.

© 2016, 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 Text, Chapter 13: II.The Guiltless Son of God, P 3. 6-6-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 3

3 The darkest of your hidden cornerstones holds your belief in guilt from your awareness. For in that dark and secret place is the realization that you have betrayed God’s Son by condemning him to death. You do not even suspect this murderous but insane idea lies hidden there, for the ego’s destructive urge is so intense that nothing short of the crucifixion of God’s Son can ultimately satisfy it. It does not know who the Son of God is because it is blind. Yet let it perceive guiltlessness anywhere, and it will try to destroy it because it is afraid.

Journal

I had to read this a couple of times and to ask Jesus to help me understand it. I think the ego mind pushes against truth so simple and clear-cut and the mind refuses to understand. We chose the separation experience and in that choice guilt came into existence. All unfolded and with it, pain, suffering and death. So in that sense, we condemned the Son of God to death through our choice for separation.

We believe this happened in reality rather than in dreams and the guilt for what we believe we did is so intense that we keep that belief buried deep within our mind. But guilt and fear and insane beliefs can be hidden from our conscious awareness, but they still do their damage. The belief that we are guilty for condemning the Son of God to death shows up in so many ways throughout our day as forms of vengeance.

We crucify ourselves daily as we suffer sickness, poverty, hate, and so many forms of fear that they cannot all be named. We live lives of quiet desperation until the desperation becomes so intense that it takes a stronger and more destructive form. We push the unnamed guilt away by seeing it on someone else, not realizing that the someone else is part of our self, and so we wind up intensifying the sense of guilt rather than losing it.

But we remain the Son of God, and into this awful scenario A Course in Miracles is given and a memory of innocence and purity is awakened. The ego really hates this and is deeply afraid of it. It will fight every step of the way to keep guiltlessness at bay, pointing out our sins and the hopelessness of the situation. Who has not felt that before?

Who has not tried to practice the lessons and failed? Who has not tried to see with Christ’s Vision and only succeeded in judging instead? The ego says this means we are guilty and that guiltlessness is a foolish dream. But it is not guiltlessness that is the dream, but the ego. We are the Sons of God. We are perfect and holy and guiltless. And though we can dream of death, we are eternal. We are all that in spite of the ego mind we made. Nothing destroys our perfection, and certainly not dreams of guilt.

© 2016, 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 Text, Chapter 13: II.The Guiltless Son of God, P 2. 6-6-16

II. THE GUILTLESS SON OF GOD, P 2

2 Yet consider how strange a solution the ego’s arrangement is. You project guilt to get rid of it, but you are actually merely concealing it. You do experience the guilt, but you have no idea why. On the contrary, you associate it with a weird assortment of “ego ideals,” which the ego claims you have failed. Yet you have no idea that you are failing the Son of God by seeing him as guilty. Believing you are no longer you, you do not realize that you are failing yourself.

Journal
What a mess this is! I don’t know who I am. I think I am Myron and all that entails, part of which is a deep seated belief in my unworthiness. Thus there is a lot of guilt in my mind, and when that guilt becomes too apparent I try to get rid of it by projecting it onto someone else. This used to make me feel better for awhile because I thought I was rid of it. What I learned is that the guilt was not gone, just hidden, and I was left with uneasiness that I didn’t understand or know what to do with.

Even now that I understand what is going on, the desire to project guilt is very strong. Part of it is habit, and I suspect that part is desperation and fear. Becoming free of guilt, even though it is not complete freedom, makes the guilt I do feel all the more painful. What I know is that I can let go of guilt. I have done it in many areas of my life, and it is just a matter of desire to release it altogether. My desire grows daily.

In the meantime, I do what I can and what I know works. I notice the belief in guilt and I ask for another way to see. I remind myself that above all else, I want to see differently. I remind myself that I am not alone in my efforts, that my efforts are heavily reinforced. One thing that motivates me very strongly is that that I am not doing this for Myron, though that is how I experience it. I am doing this for the Sonship, and my every effort helps the Family of God awaken to the truth.

As a minister of God, I teach through the words given me, but I teach even more effectively through my healed mind that reflects as my healed life. As guilt falls away in my mind, the ego is being undone and this becomes apparent to those who are ready to see it. There is nothing like demonstration to teach, and that is my function, first to accept the Atonement for myself, and then to be the Atonement in action so that I motivate others to desire it for themselves.

(Hmm. I had never thought of it quite like that before, and as I read what I wrote I wondered if that was true. I sat with it for a moment to allow Spirit to correct me if necessary, but all I felt was a warmth around my heart at the thought of helping my brothers as I help myself. It felt uplifting and joyful, so I am leaving it as I wrote it.)

If someone were to ask me how I handle guilt, I would say that first I learn to recognize it in all its forms, some of which are subtle. If I wish something or someone were different, then I am judging and thus making guilty. If I am sad because of someone or something, I have judged and thus made guilty. There are a lot of ways guilt shows up, fear and worry, for example. Becoming proficient at recognizing these ways helps me to do this work.

The next thing I do is notice if being aware of guilt is making me feel afraid or guilty for being guilty. Then I remind myself that I am just looking, not guilty. Looking is my job, and looking with the Holy Spirit is the means of healing the mind of the belief in guilt. If I become impatient that nothing seems to be happening, or if it is happening too slowly, I remind myself that this is just another way of saying I am guilty. “Let it go. Just let it go, Myron.” It is counterproductive to become guilty about undoing guilt.

My part is to acknowledge guilt, to look at it with the Holy Spirit, to desire freedom from guilt and to give the Holy Spirit permission to heal it in my mind, then to accept that healing. My behavior is just a picture of where I am in the healing process. I don’t try to change the picture, I just go back to the source of the problem, that is, what I am choosing to believe. I change my mind as many times as it takes.

© 2016, 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 2 of 3 pages  < 1 2 3 > 

<< 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.