Together, We Light the Way

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

Study of Text, C 15: The End of Doubt, P 4, 10-19-17

II. The End of Doubt, P 4
4 You do not realize how much you have misused your brothers by seeing them as sources of ego support. As a result, they witness to the ego in your perception, and seem to provide reasons for not letting it go. Yet they are far stronger and much more compelling witnesses for the Holy Spirit. And they support His strength. It is, therefore, your choice whether they support the ego or the Holy Spirit in you. And you will recognize which you have chosen by their reactions. A Son of God who has been released through the Holy Spirit in a brother is always recognized. He cannot be denied. If you remain uncertain, it is only because you have not given complete release. And because of this, you have not given a single instant completely to the Holy Spirit. For when you have, you will be sure you have. You will be sure because the witness to Him will speak so clearly of Him that you will hear and understand. You will doubt until you hear one witness whom you have wholly released through the Holy Spirit. And then you will doubt no more.

Journal
I asked the Holy Spirit for an example of this so that I could understand this. He immediately brought to mind someone I used to work for. I didn’t like or trust this man. Everything he said or did reflected my dislike for him. His words to me, and his actions toward me seemed to be an attack and I did not feel safe around him. I always expected him to fire me at any moment, and each attack seemed like a preamble to that.

What I did not see at that time is that I had an ego driven attitude toward him and he was reflecting this back to me. My ego and his ego seemed to be in a pitched battle all the time. The loss of peace this caused me was too much for me to bear and so I finally decided to end the war. I asked the Holy Spirit to show me a different way to see this man. I told Him I wanted to love this man.

My intention set the stage for the Holy Spirit in me to communicate with the Holy Spirit in Him, and the only communication the Holy Spirit knows is love. Very quickly, I began to notice so many good qualities in him. I began to enjoy our conversations and I found him very easy to work with. His words seemed kind and conciliatory.

It was as Jesus said: “It is, therefore, your choice whether they support the ego or the Holy Spirit in you. And you will recognize which you have chosen by their reactions.”  Well, I certainly saw a change in communication with him. Perhaps he was always the man I came to know and I simply heard from him what I expected to hear. When I changed my mind about supporting the ego in me, how I heard his words changed. It is a lesson I am not going to quickly forget.

© 2017, 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

Manual for Teachers 3. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S TEACHERS? P 1. 10-18-17

4. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S TEACHERS? P 1
1 The surface traits of God’s teachers are not at all alike. They do not look alike to the body’s eyes, they come from vastly different backgrounds, their experiences of the world vary greatly, and their superficial “personalities” are quite distinct. Nor, at the beginning stages of their functioning as teachers of God, have they as yet acquired the deeper characteristics that will establish them as what they are. God gives special gifts to His teachers, because they have a special role in His plan for Atonement. Their specialness is, of course, only temporary; set in time as a means of leading out of time. These special gifts, born in the holy relationship toward which the teaching-learning situation is geared, become characteristic of all teachers of God who have advanced in their own learning. In this respect they are all alike.

Journal
As Jesus says, on the surface God’s teachers are not at all alike. But there is one way in which they are alike. They have special gifts geared for their part in His plan for Atonement. The specialness is temporary, of course. It applies only in time where it is needed. Perhaps one teacher is gifted as a scribe, perhaps another as a healer.

A teacher might be a dynamic speaker and another an effective writer. A teacher might be charismatic. Another teacher might be given a special curriculum and the means to carry it out. Think of the teacher of God who has inspired you and you may see that one has a different gift. More and more we are being gifted with teachers who have awakened and they have something special to offer, each one with a different way of offering it.

The teachers of God do not begin with all of the characteristics that Jesus will tell us about, at least they are not fully developed yet. They are not perfect; they are in the process of becoming perfect. As they teach they learn and these characteristics develop further and they become advanced teachers of God. I feel blessed when I am guided to my teachers and very grateful to them for their willingness.

© 2017, 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, C 15: The End of Doubt, P 3, 10-17-17

II. The End of Doubt, P 3
3 How long can it take to be where God would have you? For you are where you have forever been and will forever be. All that you have, you have forever. The blessed instant reaches out to encompass time, as God extends Himself to encompass you. You who have spent days, hours and even years in chaining your brothers to your ego in an attempt to support it and uphold its weakness, do not perceive the Source of strength. In this holy instant, you will unchain all your brothers, and refuse to support either their weakness or your own.

Journal
I seem to be in this coma dreaming I am a body among other bodies, existing for a while, vacillating between pleasure and pain, and then dying. But really, I am in God this very moment. I am studying and practicing this Course because I want to be awakened from this dream. I want to return my mind to its natural state of blissful awareness. Just as the holy instant reaches out to encompass time and thus it undoes the illusion of time, God extends Himself to encompass me and thus undoes the illusion of separate individual selves. It takes no time at all to return to our God state of awareness because there is no time. The Course gives us many ways to ease us out of our present state of delusion. Here, Jesus talks about one of those ways.

Jesus says that I chained my brothers to my ego in an attempt to uphold its weakness.  How do I do that? Here is one way I used to do that. When I was married, I used to show my husband how much he hurt me with his actions and words in an attempt to change him. This was a way that I chained him to my ego. I was teaching him that he was not enough as he was, that he had to be different to be ok. And at the same time, I was teaching myself that I needed him to uphold me, to do something to make me ok. I was making the ego stronger in my mind when I did this.

Another way I did this was to call attention to illness when it occurred in me. If I had a migraine, I would tell my kids so they could feel sorry for me and give me expressions of love. I used it in other ways as well, a way to get out of doing things I didn’t want to do, for instance. In using migraines this way, I was making the ego stronger in me and I was binding others with my ego needs and teaching them that sickness was real and could be used for the purpose of receiving love. When I recognized this behavior and stopped doing it, the migraines went away, as I had no use for them anymore.

Nowadays, I don’t do this very much, and when I do, it is subtler, and sometimes never leaves my mind. The last time I did this, I joined a support group and did the work required in that group. Then I told someone I love about what I had done. It was a way to manipulate him, to say, “Here, this is how it works, how you need to do it.” And maybe it was also to inflict a little guilt if he didn’t do it. Why did I do this? Was it for his own good? That would be the ego story, but really, it was to make my ego-self feel better about things, to stop the worry associated with ego fear. When I noticed what I was doing and saw my motive clearly, I confessed and we laughed about it. I don’t want to do anything to make the ego stronger or to bind someone to my ego. “In this holy instant you will unchain all your brothers, and refuse to support either their weakness or your own.”

© 2017, 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

Manual for Teachers 3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 4- 10-12-17

3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 4

4 Each teaching-learning situation is maximal in the sense that each person involved will learn the most that he can from the other person at that time. In this sense, and in this sense only, we can speak of levels of teaching. Using the term in this way, the second level of teaching is a more sustained relationship, in which, for a time, two people enter into a fairly intense teaching-learning situation and then appear to separate. As with the first level, these meetings are not accidental, nor is what appears to be the end of the relationship a real end. Again, each has learned the most he can at the time. Yet all who meet will someday meet again, for it is the destiny of all relationships to become holy. God is not mistaken in His Son.

Journal
The reason we have levels of teaching is that not everyone is ready for a holy relationship at the same time. We have those brief encounters that Jesus talked about in the last paragraph, in which two people encounter each other in passing. They are not unimportant, in fact, that situation affords the two people an opportunity to learn as much as they can at that time and so the learning-teaching situation is maximal. He tells us that it is in this sense only that we speak of levels of teaching.

The second level is the more sustained relationship. This relationship lasts longer and is fairly intense, then, the two separate. I was thinking of my first two marriages. ~smile~ They didn’t last long, but they were definitely intense. I also see that we learned from each other as much as we could. It is not to say that no more could be learned from them, but it was the most that could be done by us at that time.

Even my third marriage would fit into this category. It lasted longer but it did end. However, by this time I had enough understanding to realize that it could still be healed even though we were not together and so I worked at it until that was done. This is a good thing because Jesus tells us that all who meet will someday meet again, for it is the destiny of all relationships to become holy. God is not mistaken in His Son.

© 2017, 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, C 15: The End of Doubt, P 2, 10-11-17

II. The End of Doubt, P 2
2 Do not be concerned with time, and fear not the instant of holiness that will remove all fear. For the instant of peace is eternal because it is without fear. It will come, being the lesson God gives you, through the Teacher He has appointed to translate time into eternity. Blessed is God’s Teacher, Whose joy it is to teach God’s holy Son his holiness. His joy is not contained in time. His teaching is for you because His joy is yours. Through Him you stand before God’s altar, where He gently translates hell into Heaven. For it is only in Heaven that God would have you be.

Journal
I cannot, in my present state, understand eternity. That’s OK. I don’t have to understand it. It is not my part to understand eternity, nor is it my part to end time. The Holy Spirit, God’s Teacher, will translate time into eternity for me. The way I understand what is being said here is that in an instant, a very holy instant, fear will fall away with all doubt, all conflict, all uncertainty, and I will know peace.

It is interesting that Jesus says not to fear the instant of holiness that will remove all fear. Why would I be afraid of the holy instant? It offers me everything I say I want. I don’t understand this, but I accept it. I think this is why we must spend some time letting go of the false beliefs before the holy instant comes. For some time now I have been letting go of guilt and I have discovered that this false belief is deeply rooted in my consciousness.

This morning, I was doing a guided meditation on love and it began by saying that meditation takes us within. I want to go within and so I was happy to think of that, but I discovered a guilty thought guarding that door. It was an old parental guilt that I would have thought would be weak and powerless from having been looked at so many times. Yet, there it was, barring my way.

So I let the meditation have me as I offered love to that thought. It didn’t seem to be doing anything at the time, and I actually thought that this encounter prevented the meditation from being effective. But now, as I sit here writing about it, I discover that I can’t find the details of the guilty thought that just moments ago was torturing me. Maybe love dissolved it.

The mind has many thoughts of guilt and these thoughts cause us to fear the holy instant. Guilty thoughts make us feel unworthy of such blissful joy as comes with Awakening, and we become afraid to approach it. I think I am impatient for that moment, but perhaps I should be grateful for the slow process of undoing that comes before it. I don’t need to be impatient or concerned that it has not yet come. I am assured that it will.

© 2017, 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

Manual for Teachers 3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 3- 10-10-17

3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 3
3 It is difficult to understand that levels of teaching the universal course is a concept as meaningless in reality as is time. The illusion of one permits the illusion of the other. In time, the teacher of God seems to begin to change his mind about the world with a single decision, and then learns more and more about the new direction as he teaches it. We have covered the illusion of time already, but the illusion of levels of teaching seems to be something different. Perhaps the best way to demonstrate that these levels cannot exist is simply to say that any level of the teaching-learning situation is part of God’s plan for Atonement, and His plan can have no levels, being a reflection of His Will. Salvation is always ready and always there. God’s teachers work at different levels, but the result is always the same.

Journal
At first glance, this paragraph doesn’t seem to say anything to me. As I sit with it, I glean at least this much; levels of teaching is like time in that neither exists except in the illusion. Because I believe in time and therefore experience time, it seems that I learn and teach or teach and learn and then I learn more and finally, something happens and I wake up altogether. It seems like this all started with a decision and then unfolds over time from there.

I have just a glimpse of the truth that I only seemed to make that decision and my awakening process only seems to take place a step at a time. In actuality, there is no time and nothing of God happens gradually and at levels. It is simply done because it is His Will that it be done. My mind stretches it out and I experience it as if it is a gradual process over a period of time. How really strange this feels to a mind that is firmly attached to time and to levels.

I think the reason this is important for me to know is that it encourages me to accept that I cannot fail because I have already succeeded. It is the light at the end of this dark and confusing tunnel, and it keeps me on a straighter and narrower path than I would have taken otherwise. It also helps me to understand that my part is one of simple acceptance of what is done. Otherwise, it takes a lot longer as I try to use the ego mind to do what it is not my function to do.

© 2017, 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, C 15: The Two Uses of Time, P 15, 10-9-17

I skipped this last paragraph in The Two Uses of Time, so I am going back to it today. We will take up in the Section II, P 2 the next time.

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 15
15 Time is your friend, if you leave it to the Holy Spirit to use. He needs but very little to restore God’s whole power to you. He Who transcends time for you understands what time is for. Holiness lies not in time, but in eternity. There never was an instant in which God’s Son could lose his purity. His changeless state is beyond time, for his purity remains forever beyond attack and without variability. Time stands still in his holiness, and changes not. And so it is no longer time at all. For caught in the single instant of the eternal sanctity of God’s creation, it is transformed into forever. Give the eternal instant, that eternity may be remembered for you, in that shining instant of perfect release. Offer the miracle of the holy instant through the Holy Spirit, and leave His giving it to you to Him.

Journal
We are in this hypnotic trance in which we think we are bodies existing in time and that we eventually die in time. It takes a lot of effort on our part to hold the truth in our mind that this is not reality. We are not in time at all but exist in eternity. To remember that this is true, we must give up the idea of the body as reality. It is only an illusion as is the rest of the world. We exist outside time and outside form.
Since we mostly believe in the body and since most of us cannot comprehend timelessness, the Holy Spirit uses what we believe in to awaken us from this surreal dream. We give Him our thinking errors and He uses time to undo them for us. The Holy Spirit isn’t making us holy; we are already holy. He is only awakening us to our holiness. There has never existed an instant in which we were not holy. We will know this when we are no longer imagining that we are in time.
We cannot wake ourselves up. We need the Holy Spirit for this. What we can do is follow His guidance, using the processes given us in A Course in Miracles to help ourselves accept what He is doing for us. We can practice the truth, and once it begins to dawn in our minds, we can protect it through daily meditation and study. One of the ways I am practicing remembering I am not a body is to deliberately take a mental step back and observing the body with detachment.
I will say to myself I am not chopping vegetables; the body/personality is doing that. I am not worried about how this body looks; the body personality is worried. My feelings are not hurt by those harsh words; the body/personality is hurt. I am unaffected by anything that is happening in the illusion. After a while, I began to achieve that sense of detachment, not just think about it. I have found this very helpful. The world is an illusion. I am not. May I always allow the Holy Spirit to use time on my behalf so that I wake up to see that there never was any time, only eternity.

© 2017, 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.