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Gentle Healing Lesson 134, Manual for Teachers, Text.  4-30-19

LESSON 134
Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.

“This twisted view of what forgiveness means is easily corrected, when you can accept the fact that pardon is not asked for what is true. It must be limited to what is false. It is irrelevant to everything except illusions.”

“Because you think your sins are real, you look on pardon as deception.”

“It is sin’s unreality that makes forgiveness natural and wholly sane, a deep relief to those who offer it; a quiet blessing where it is received. It does not countenance illusions, but collects them lightly, with a little laugh, and gently lays them at the feet of truth. And there they disappear entirely.”

“Forgiveness is the only thing that stands for truth in the illusions of the world.”

“It (forgiveness) looks on them with quiet eyes, and merely says to them, “My brother, what you think is not the truth.”

“Would I accuse myself of doing this”?

Jesus is helping us to understand that we have never really forgiven anyone until we recognize that we only forgive illusions. When I forgave my ex-husband, I did not forgive him for what he did, but for what he did not do. All of this story of him and me and our children was an illusion. It never happened. Forgiving him may have been the best thing I ever did for myself because it lifted a heavy darkness from my mind.

This is what Jesus meant when he asked if we would accuse ourselves of doing this. When we accuse another, we chain ourselves to the world, so, no. I will not do that to myself again. And what did I do in my accusations of that man? I made the illusions seem real to me and could not let them go without letting him off the hook. And so I remained imprisoned in the idea of sin right along with my prisoner.

I never think of sin now as something the other did. I think of it as just another illusion to forgive. I think of it as forgiving my projections onto that one. I think of it as undoing the illusion, and as undoing the ego. It can be kind of tricky, though. The obvious accusations are easy for me to dismiss, but there are more subtle ones that I recognize only in that I seem to have lost my peace.

For example, my son was supposed to come home for a visit. Instead, he chose to do something else. I noticed a disturbance in the force, ha ha. I suddenly didn’t feel happy so I looked at that. I had to admit that with company having just left and things I wanted to do, I was actually quite content to be at home alone. But I still felt abandoned by him even if it didn’t make sense. I said all the right things to him and was careful not to make him guilty. But in my mind, I was definitely all into the illusion of good and evil. ~smile~

But I don’t tolerate lack of peace very well anymore, so I used him for this exercise.

I did only what is asked of us. I began it with, “Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.” This is a lot different than asking to forgive him for his sins. It actually lifts the meditation out of the personal. It helps me to realize that it is not really about him or about me; it is about forgiveness and the form it is taking for me right now is irrelevant other than to show me that I still believe in sin and so this exercise is needed.

Then, I cataloged his “sins.” I knew I did not want to condemn myself to my sins, and so I wanted to forgive his, or rather the idea he had sinned. I was given the realization that my demands on him were selfish as Regina had talked about recently, so I went back to that reading and used her example as a template for my process.

I remember there are only two alternatives, and in every choice I make I choose either ego or heaven. I accept that as true. I also accept there is no compromise, no ‘in-between’ option.

Am I taking his freedom to follow his own will from him?

If I got my way, would I feel guilty? Yes. I would.

Looking at it that way helped me to see the selfishness of my desires.

And as Regina said about her decision and is the same way I now feel:

What if I do nothing? What if I simply let this unfold without grievance and let everything be? Will that last forever? Yes! I see how simply letting everything unfold and be as it is, is a non-ending state of being. If I make this choice, am I taking something from someone else? No, not at all ever. Will I feel guilty for this choice? No, it seems that I would only feel curious. And if I am completely genuine in letting everything unfold without putting my desires upon it, I would be happy.

Then I continued my meditation until it felt complete, allowing my mind to be healed in whatever way the Holy Spirit would do this miracle.

Regina’s Tips
“Because you think your sins are real, you look on pardon as deception.” – I would word that this way: Because you think your thoughts are true, you think letting go of them is foolish.

It doesn’t matter if the chatter that plagues you now is fear about the future, a grievance against another person, a judgment against yourself or something else. The reason it is not let go and forgotten is because you think it is true. You think your mind is right.

Why do you think your mind is right? When there are so many people on the planet who would have a different perspective than you, what makes you so sure that your mind is right?

As one’s mind rises up to comprehend truth, one is happy. When one’s thinking is in harmony with truth, one is happy. If one is not happy, the current thinking IS NOT TRUE. You really do not need any other measure. If you are happy and at peace, fine; let your thoughts be. But if you are not, trust that your thoughts are wrong, and let them go. That is forgiveness.

My Thoughts
Regina has a lot of helpful information in this tip. (https://awakening-together.org/tips-from-regina-lesson-134-let-me-perceive-forgiveness-as-it-is/). But this is the tip I found most helpful. If what I think does not make me happy, my current thinking is not true. So I am going to stop dwelling on it and give my attention to what is true. Letting the untrue thoughts go is forgiveness. Regina doesn’t talk about the mind being healed during meditation or about the Holy Spirit doing this. But I have proven to myself that this works so I am sticking with it. It feels so right to me.

She also says another thing that I find helpful.

…to know about forgiveness, but not to practice it, is not wisdom. Wisdom is practicing it. In fact, wisdom is practicing it, not occasionally, but with every opportunity that is given. Each time you notice your mind dwells with a line of thinking that is not creating joy in you, be honest with yourself. The current thinking is not truth. And for that reason, let it go

I do this. I do it as soon as I realize what is happening. If I do it right away, forgiveness is simple and easy. If I hold onto the thoughts longer, then forgiveness is simple but not as easy. But regardless, I do it.

Manual for Teachers
“Thus does the son of man become the Son of God.”

How does this miracle occur? It is a change of mind. My experience has been a change that occurs slowly over time. I used to be afraid of everything and I had very low self-worth. I was self-centered and selfish. All of these traits were the result of thinking mostly with my ego mind and believing everything I thought. After I began to study the Course, I began to change outwardly, but only because I changed inwardly.

It has been a radical change, though not a complete change as of yet. It is a daily practice. I know I am not my ego even though I still get pulled into a drama now and again. I know that I am as God created me even when I have moments of self-doubt. I am learning the value and the joy of surrender and that surrender deepens daily. I step back and let Him lead the way far more often than not. I reflect the Love of God, and one day, I will reflect nothing but the Love of God.

Text
God’s Will is my will.
We share the same will, God and I. This separate ego will is a toy I have played with, not what I am. I am one with God and so I am one with His Will. That is the only will I have, and as I let go of the belief I am being asked to sacrifice my own will for God’s, I become more eager for the truth.

I have become less protective of the ego will, and more willing to accept my own true will. Now the idea of my will being overcome by God’s Will no longer frightens me because I realize that is not what is happening. I am, instead, simply returning to my own will, which is the same thing as returning to God’s Will. I’m still allowing this to be untangled in my mind, but it will go faster now that I am no longer afraid of it.
Love,

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Gentle Healing Lesson 133, Manual for Teachers, Text.  4-29-19

LESSON 133
I will not value what is valueless.

“You do not ask too much of life, but far too little.”

How is it that I ask for too little? I used to think that I wanted things that the body would enjoy. That was my goal, to have money, a perfect relationship, a better body, more fun, good sex. I got a lot of stuff, not everything I thought I wanted, but a great deal of it. None of that made me happy, and what is the point of any of it if it doesn’t make me happy. I got temporary pleasure, but that’s it.

I’m reminded of our president. He has money, prestige, fame, lots of women and sex, he’s even president of the United States for pete’s sake. But he doesn’t, as far as I can tell, seem very happy. How much is enough? When does the accumulation of our worldly desires bring us happiness? Jesus is telling us that it never will, that we are reaching too low. He says that there are no satisfactions in this world.

“Today we list the real criteria by which to test all things you think you want. Unless they meet these sound requirements, they are not worth desiring at all, for they can but replace what offers more.”

I have proven for myself that my criteria for happiness were not working. I like how Jesus simplifies it for us. We don’t get to decide on the laws of choice or the alternatives from which we can choose. But we do get to choose, and in fact, we must choose. I will say that we do choose, rightly or wrongly, we choose. The problem has been that we do it half-hazardly without regard to the laws we set in motion when we choose.

These are the laws that govern choice.

“We have already stressed there are but two, however many there appear to be.”

“Another kindly and related law is that there is no compromise in what your choice must bring.”

We only have two choices, reality or illusion, God or ego, what has value and what is valueless. It only seems like there are endless choices we can make because we confuse form with content. Jesus is going to tell us how this works. He also says that there is no compromise in the effects of our choice.  Jesus says that each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. I love this. It feels simple and safe, something I have not felt before when I believed life was complicated and dangerous and so very hard to figure out.

Here are the tests that explain how to make the best choice.

“First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is valueless.”
“Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will have nothing left.”
“Why is the choice you make of value to you?”
“If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the ego’s goals to come between the real alternatives. And thus you do not realize there are but two, and the alternative you think you chose seems fearful, and too dangerous to be the nothingness it actually is.”

What stands out to me the most is that I choose between everything and nothing. That which does not last is nothing dressed up to look like something. That’s why money and fame and all of the other is of no value whatsoever, it is nothing, it is only an illusion of something. Does this mean that I should not have any of this? I don’t think that is what he is saying. What I don’t want to do is to waste my time striving for these things thinking they are going to make me happy.

If I were to find myself in a script where I am rich and famous, the question would be how can this be used in a way that makes it valuable? What we make for ourselves can be used by the Holy Spirit if we are willing. This makes me think of Oprah Winfrey. She has money and fame and has used it to be kind and helpful and to promote higher spiritual ideas. She has not let it keep her from looking within and letting her mind be healed.

“Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own. “

More and more I am coming to realize that this is how the mind is healed. Just let go of everything and approach awakening with confidence. I begin my meditations by saying, “Here I am, God.” That is all that is needed. That is me without any instructions for Him. Ha ha. It is me coming with empty hands and an open mind ready to receive what is given.

Whatever I say afterward, that is to be the contemplation of the day is always open-ended. For instance, I might say that I want to know my Self. Or if it is a contemplation on the lesson it will be like today’s, which is actually just a variation on wanting to know my Self. Everything that I am learning through A Course in Miracles is to bring me to the point of knowing my Self which is in union with my brothers and with God.

“I will not value what is valueless, and only what has value do I seek, for only that do I desire to find.”

Regina’s Tips

Let me start by saying that the ego is inherently selfish. The ego always thinks of ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ It has no other point of view. Spirit, on the other hand, thinks only of purpose and wholeness. It has a broad perspective, and ‘me’ is completely unimportant. That doesn’t mean that the individual is sacrificed. The individual is loved as part of the whole, which is completely different than the selfishness of the ego.

I will also say that one of the most challenging things to teach is dropping selfishness. The ego is extremely protective of it. Yet, if you are to know the heart of truth, selfishness must be let go.

My thoughts
Regina has a way of getting right to the heart of the idea presented. I am very grateful to her for this. I am going to post her example here because it is perfect. I think I mostly do this, but I want to always use these criteria for making decisions.

Regina’s example
Today’s workbook lesson is excellent in its practicality if you will use it that way. I did. The effect for me was that I saw my own selfishness in a way I had not seen it before, and this generated a change in me from a selfish perspective to a perspective of service.

When I first used this was during that period of time when Ron and I had agreed to marry, and then I began to sense that he was going to back out. I told that story in last Sunday’s service. (I will provide the link to the audio in the comments section below.)

At first my response to realizing he would back out was a lot of ego chatter. That chatter was focused on ideas about how I could still get what I wanted. It looked at the situation from many different angles, like it was working on a puzzle, and it tried to figure out the exact strategy that would get what I wanted. And yet, somehow I was blind to the selfishness in that until I tested what I wanted against the criteria in today’s workbook lesson. The test looked something like this:

I want to convince Ron to marry me. I remember there are only two alternatives, and in every choice I make I choose either ego or heaven. I accept that as true. I also accept there is no compromise, no ‘in-between’ option. This wanting is either ego or heaven, and I am here to discover which it is. If I convince Ron to marry me, will that marriage last forever? No. At best, “death do us part.” It could end in divorce before that. If I convince Ron to marry me, am I taking something from someone else? Cleary the answer is ‘yes.’ If he does not want to marry me, and I somehow convince him to marry me, I am taking his freedom to follow his own will from him. Is it possible that if I convince Ron to marry me, I will later feel guilty? Yes, I can see how that might occur. Therefore, my desire to convince Ron to marry me is ego and must be let go.

2. What if I do nothing? What if I simply let this unfold without grievance and let everything be? Will that last forever? Yes! I see how simply letting everything unfold and be as it is, is a non-ending state of being. If I make this choice, am I taking something from someone else? No, not at all ever. Will I feel guilty for this choice? No, it seems that I would only feel curious. And if I am completely genuine in letting everything unfold without putting my desires upon it, I would be happy.

And so, I made the second choice. That is how this lesson works in a practical way. Also, from looking at this and other choices this clearly, I could instantly see what was selfish and what was not. I learned to drop the selfishness, and live in a state of service, which is ‘letting it all unfold and be as it is’ while intuiting my little part in it, but never seeking for what ‘I can get out of it.’ Except for awakening, of course.

Manual for Teachers
“He who was always wholly spirit now no longer sees himself as a body, or even as in a body.”

I am becoming more adamant with myself as to what I am. I remind myself often that I am not this body, and that I am not even in this body temporarily. This body is an illusion that exists only in the mind. I have used words to refer to my self, words like spirit, pure consciousness, awareness, and the Course says that we are the Son of God and sometimes it says, we are Christ Consciousness or the Mind of Christ. None of these words evoke a sense of knowing in me, though they feel truer that the idea of a body.

What the Course is very clear about is that I am not a body, and for a long time, the body was the only idea that seemed real to me. I had thought of myself as a body for eons, evidently. But believing something for a long time does not make it true; it simply reinforces a false idea to the point that it becomes a hardened belief. And as Jesus says, what we believe is true for us.

Another thing Jesus tells us is that if we believe we are a body we will suffer when the body suffers. I am especially aware of this right now because this body is sick and so I feel sick, not because I must, but because I am still to some degree identified with the body. But as always now, I notice this phenomenon and realize it is a form of insanity, and as such, I deny it can be true. It is saner to deny what is not real than to simply accept it, and since it is not real, I can eventually learn to perceive it as not real. Then my experience will be of what is real and I will know myself as unlimited, as I truly am.

Text
I have always thought that God was asking me to sacrifice. This has been going on all my life. Sacrificing for God was strongly emphasized when I was a Catholic, not that I needed any encouragement to believe in sacrifice, but through Catholicism sacrifice became confused with love of God in my mind. In reality, sacrifice is related, not to love of God, but to the fear of God.

Slowly, through the study of ACIM, I have learned that God does not want my sacrifice. The idea of sacrifice is a sticky mess in my mind though, and I still notice the belief cropping up so it is still there, though not as strongly believed as before, and denied as truth when I notice it. If God wanted my sacrifice, He would not be Love.

The belief that is hardest to release is the belief the Holy Spirit is asking me to sacrifice the world and my own self in order to be saved. The confusion occurs because, while He does encourage me to give up the world and the ego self, He is also teaching me that this is no sacrifice, and up until now I just wasn’t buying it. There was still this corner of my mind where insanity reigns, and I think it is better to rule the asylum than to be one with God. Well, it is still there but it is a shrinking space.

In this part of the mind, the ego insists that with just a little more time the world can be improved upon and I will finally get what I want. No matter that it has been saying this for eons, and no matter that it can’t articulate exactly what it is I want or how that task will be accomplished. The ego mind is insistent that giving up on the separation idea is loss.

As a concept, I have already given up on the separation idea, and now I am just looking at the many forms of the idea in my mind and life and realizing that I don’t want it anymore. I am learning through contrast that it is no sacrifice to let it all go. I have been doing this a thought at a time, a situation at a time, a relationship at a time, but the lesson is being generalized and I am much closer to letting go of the idea that I am ever being asked to sacrifice. I am finally realizing that there is nothing here worth keeping so how could it be that letting it go would be a sacrifice.

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Gentle Healing Lesson 132, Manual for Teachers, Text.  4-26-19

LESSON 132
I loose the world from all I thought it was.

“Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth.”

“Yet is salvation easily achieved, for anyone is free to change his mind, and all his thoughts change with it.”

I have understood the power of thought for a long time now, and even before the Course, I believed I had to be careful of the thoughts in my mind. It was a long time though before I learned what it means to really monitor my thoughts and that I could learn to change my mind, and then it took time for me to become willing to do this practice and to become consistent in it. Now I do it without hesitancy.

It feels like I am bringing individual thoughts to the Holy Spirit to be removed from my mind, and that is one way to think of it. But to think of it as asking for another way to see reflects the truth more accurately. I am not really changing my thoughts, I am changing the source of my thoughts. Those thoughts that I don’t want to keep come from thinking with the ego mind. I am developing the habit of thinking with my holy mind instead.

“Here in the present is the world set free.”

The world is nothing. It seems to be something as my mind gives it meaning and when I use the ego mind to do that. Those thoughts are based on fear and guilt and so I imprison the world with the suffering that comes from those thoughts. But right now at this moment and only in the now moment, I can change that.

“There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your ultimate release. Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly. Ideas leave not their source.”

Jesus is so very clear here. We came into the world that we wanted. It is exactly what we chose it to be. In learning to think from our holy mind rather than our ego mind, we will change the world. It is impossible that this not happen. The world is what we think it is, so if we change what we think, the world will change.

The reason we don’t see this change as we give up one thought after another is that we are still in the baby stage of changing the mind with which we think. I have a thought of judgment and I immediately feel uneasy because I have practiced releasing judgmental thoughts and now I know I don’t want them anymore.

I have learned through contrast how it feels to judge and how much better it feels when I don’t judge. The bigger picture is that I am teaching myself that I want to think with my holy mind, that this is how I reach peace. I am teaching myself to change the source of my thinking.

So, while changing my mind about individual thoughts is the way I learn that I want to change the source of my thinking, the world does not experience a substantive change until I achieve the larger goal of changing the source of my thoughts. And it will not become the real world until all of the mind changes. My concern, however, is to do my part in changing my mind.

“There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to teach.”

There can be a lot of resistance to this idea but eventually, we must come to accept it. This is the reason the world changes with our thoughts. It exists only in our mind. Jesus says that when we accept this truth, the lesson will be given them in a form they can understand. Maybe it will occur as we do this lesson. Or another one. Maybe it will come gradually as it is happening for me. Just a few months ago, the idea of the world not being real was something I resisted. Today, I have no idea why I resisted it. It seems so obvious to me now.

“And if it is indeed your own imagining, then you can loose it from all things you ever thought it was by merely changing all the thoughts that gave it these appearances. The sick are healed as you let go all thoughts of sickness, and the dead arise when you let thoughts of life replace all thoughts you ever held of death.”

I love reading about people whose minds have changed to the degree that they experience these miracles of healing and even rising from the dead. I love reading about it because it reminds me of the truth and since we are all faced constantly with the illusion of our making, it really helps to be reminded that we can as easily make something else, something closer to reality, at least kinder than what we made with the ego.

One of my favorite reminders happened at a workshop put on by Nouk Sanchez. She was teaching that there is no death and that miracles are literal. There was one skeptic in the group who doubted everything. He crossed his arms stubbornly and said, “I would like to see a literal miracle.” And then he dropped dead.

His heart had stopped at that moment, and one in the group began to resuscitate him with CPR, the rest of the group stood in a circle around them and firmly held to believe that there is no death. The paramedics arrived and used the paddles on him repeatedly. After he had been without a heartbeat for 25 minutes, the paramedics were ready to give up, thinking they were not going to get a heartbeat and even if they did, he would be a vegetable because of the length of time he went without a heartbeat.

They were in touch with the hospital and the doctors told them to try one more time and then to call it. The last attempt they made brought his heart back online. I was amazed that these people were able to hold their vision that there is no death for that length of time without flagging. One of the people there was his daughter and another was a niece. Not only did he start breathing but he fully recovered. He came back as a kinder better person and as a healer.

“How can a world of time and place exist, if you remain as God created you?”

“What is the lesson for today except for another way of saying that to know your Self is the salvation of the world? To free the world from every kind of pain is but to change your mind about yourself. There is no world apart from your ideas because ideas leave not their source, and you maintain the world within your mind in thought.”

To fully accept this is to change everything. It is to release the world from all I made of it. It is only an illusion of creation and thus is not eternal and can be released as I release the thoughts that maintain it.

“I who remain as God created me would loose the world from all I thought it was. For I am real because the world is not, and I would know my own reality.”

“Then merely rest, alert but with no strain, and let your mind in quietness be changed so that the world is freed, along with you.”

This brings me back to my daily practice of resting in God and allowing the change to occur. I rest in certainty, confidence and gratitude.

Regina’s Tips

“A madman thinks the world he sees is real, and does not doubt it. Nor can he be swayed by questioning his thought’s effects. It is but WHEN THEIR SOURCE IS RAISED TO QUESTION that the hope of freedom comes to him at last.”

In other words, we are not concerned with effects at all. We are not looking out to see if there is or is not sickness, war, death, etc. We are focused inward in this way:

What is the source of this thought I am thinking now? Is it ego or truth? If it is ego, I let it go because it is ego. If I can feel it is truth, I contemplate it and/or follow it, as appropriate.

If we take today’s lesson down to this basic practice, and practice it, we are doing what is intended.

It’s the ‘keep it simple’ spirit. KISS

My Thoughts

I agree that our part is to recognize that the world we see is not real at all and that we must change the source of our thoughts. That is the work to be done. I do believe in miracles that are often made manifest as the mind is healed. But that is not for me to concern myself with. I change the source of my thoughts and miracles take care of themselves.

Text
Miracles are merely the sign of your willingness to follow the Holy Spirit’s plan of salvation… 9.IV. 6

The ego mind thinks it is helping me to solve problems. When I am looking at it from the ego mind, it seems like I must consider all angles of the situation, look closely at the story, deciding who is wrong and what I need to do about it to defend my position and protect myself. Sometimes I stumble over a useful idea and things seem to get better for a while, but nothing is solved because the ego cannot heal. The best I can hope for is a temporary secession of conflict, knowing it will show up somewhere else, in some other form.

When I choose to release this to the Holy Spirit, the experience and the outcome is entirely different. I notice that I am angry and upset with a friend. I realize that my thoughts about this situation are making me miserable and I show them to the Holy Spirit, asking Him to correct my thinking and heal my mind. He does this. Sometimes I stray back into the ego mind and pick up the problem again, but if I do, I just repeat the process with the Holy Spirit.

When I am looking at this situation with the Holy Spirit and handing it over to Him, it is all very simple and easy and the solution is permanent because a healing has occurred. All that I have to do is stay in my real mind and let Spirit complete His function. I have no part in that other than to not interfere.

I have noticed that not interfering is the only hard part for me. The ego mind wants to do the Holy Spirit’s job. It requires vigilance to be aware when I have strayed into a function that is not mine to fulfill. I remind myself that my job is to notice the ego thoughts, to realize I don’t want them and to release them to the Holy Spirit. Period. I am through. Now it is the Holy Spirit’s job to complete the forgiveness process.

What occurs when I do my part and stand back is a miracle. My mind is healed and from a healed mind, a healed world becomes manifest. If I follow this simple plan, doing only my part and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the rest, my life will be miraculous. The world’s laws will be meaningless as the miracle supersedes them. As I do this more and more, forgiveness becomes easier and more natural, and so does miraculous living.

Manual for Teachers
Is peace possible in the world? It depends on what we choose to see as the world. The world that we see with the body’s eyes is a world of war and cannot be anything else. But in T 5:V, Jesus says: “You keep an ancient memory before your eyes. And he who lives in memories alone is unaware of where he is.” What we see with our eyes is just an ancient memory and it is a memory of hell. We are no longer there, we are in Heaven now, but we don’t know we are because we keep the memory of hell alive in our mind.

We can stop believing what our eyes show us and instead ask the Holy Spirit to show us what is really there. Jesus said that God redeemed the world and that it is now peaceful. It has been turned from hell into Heaven by the presence of a Thought of God. Are we not Thoughts of God? Just by being what we are, we transform the world. And yet, we choose to deny our true Self and to dwell in hell a little longer. This can and will change, why not now?

The only thing that keeps this world before our eyes is our desire for it to exist. There must be something of this world that we value or we would have already turned from it as others have done. Let those ideas rise up in your mind so that you and the Holy Spirit can look at them together and see that they have no value after all. As you let them go, the real world, the world that is actually here now, will be revealed.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Gentle Healing Lesson 131, Manual for Teachers, Text.  4-24-19

LESSON 131
No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth.

“Be glad that search you must. Be glad as well to learn you search for Heaven, and must find the goal you really want.”

“You will find Heaven. Everything you seek but this will fall away. Yet not because it has been taken from you. It will go because you do not want it.”

“Why wait for Heaven? It is here today.”

“How could it be His Son could be in hell, when God Himself established him in Heaven?”

“I ask to see a different world, and think a different kind of thought from those I made. The world I seek I did not make alone, the thoughts I want to think are not my own.”

“You cannot fail today. There walks with you the Spirit Heaven sent you, that you might approach this door some day, and through His aid slip effortlessly past it, to the light. Today that day has come. Today God keeps His ancient promise to His holy Son, as does His Son remember his to Him. This is a day of gladness, for we come to the appointed time and place where you will find the goal of all your searching here, and all the seeking of the world, which end together as you pass beyond the door.”

Wow! That was quite a meditation. I went into it as the holy endeavor it was, seeking to end my searching, seeking to enter that sacred room. I don’t really want to try to put words to this experience. It was different than anything I have done before. I still feel the effect even now.

Regina’s Tips

It is very good news that “no one can fail who seeks to reach the truth,” but the key in that sentence is that it is the one who seeks that finds. When one is tempted to listen to recommendations to drop seeking, it might be helpful to ask, “How does not seeking serve the ego?”

Based on Jesus’ example of the woman with the lost coin, it seems that Jesus recommends determined seeking. That reminds me of a quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj:

“We discover it by being earnest, by searching, inquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one’s life to this discovery.”

My Thoughts

I’m still a little disconnected from my thinking mind right now. I do believe in seeking and have never felt drawn to the idea that seeking is not necessary. I think even in an awakened state one will probably need to remain a seeker, in the sense that awakening is not an end but a true beginning. I am not at that place so I could be wrong.

Manual for Teachers
Jesus gives the Holy Spirit different names in the Course depending on His particular function in a situation. Just as He is the Voice for God He is also the Answer and is God’s Judgment. He is the Answer because through the power of our belief we have made problems that need an answer, and because we believe in what we make, we cannot answer our own problems. This conundrum is something Jesus speaks of more than once. We cannot heal ourselves, for that we need the Holy Spirit Who is God’s Answer to our self-made problems.

One time, I had one of those problems that triggered feelings of unworthiness. I knew this is the ego mind that is judging the situation. What happened is that a particular thing occurred that reminded me of something from the past, and without giving it thought, I automatically asked the ego what it meant. The ego reminded me of my unworthiness, and as I accepted the ego’s judgment, I began to feel bad about myself. I then projected this feeling onto the one that triggered me because I had asked the ego what to do about this feeling and projection is the ego’s advice.

When this happened, I knew that I had been listening to the ego and I knew that I must stop listening to the ego’s judgment and turn my attention to the Holy Spirit. I was reminded that my mind holds only what I think with God. This didn’t feel true for me at this time because I seemed to have a lot of ego at that moment. I asked Holy Spirit for guidance and I wrote into my journal what I received.

Holy Spirit: That your mind holds only what you think with God is merely a fact. When it seems to not be true, you may rest assured that you are dreaming of other things. You are dreaming that you can change the nature of God. You are dreaming that you are a human being rather than a Divine Being. But dreams do not change reality. Your mind holds only what you think with God.
Wake up, my sweet sister. Let me show you your real thoughts. You have been searching in dreams for these thoughts and that is not where they will be found. Even as you remember what you have read in the Course and recite these very true words to yourself, you do this alone within the ego mind made to give you the illusion of aloneness. There is no power in decisions made alone.

Now you are changing your mind in union with Me and that is power indeed, power that will move mountains. This seeming problem you have made within your dreaming is the mountain we are interested in today. Give me your wholehearted desire for the solution and I will be your Solution.

Me: Holy Spirit, I give you this problem, this belief that God could have ever created a Being that was unworthy, the belief that any Being could make of itself something that God did not create. I am ready to remember my true Self, to know myself as the magnificent creation I am.

Oh my gosh, Holy Spirit, I can feel the ego mind rushing in to save me from God.

Holy Spirit: Do not be afraid of the ego mind that continues to chatter away and makes futile efforts to keep you involved in this story. It is nothing, a collection of beliefs from which I will relieve you. It has no power to contain your glory unless this is your desire.

Me: I give You my ego; it knows not what it does.

Text
Since the Atonement is meant to undo the belief in separation, it naturally is for all. It undoes the belief that anything could be for me alone. I hear the ego in my mind separating out a brother and seeing him as guilty and it is just insane. How could my brother be separate from me? We share the same identity, the same mind.

The idea that I am different from you, separate and apart, is an illusion. If I would remember reality, this is an idea I must release. I cannot believe in the illusion of separation and believe in Reality at the same time. Could you believe that the sky is blue and believe it is red at the same time? One thought would have to be seen as wrong.

It is the same with illusion and reality. Only one is true. I can believe something is not true, but my belief will not change reality. However, if I believe a lie is true I will live as if the lie is true. This is what has happened. We have chosen to believe a lie and it has become true for us. Not true in reality, but true in our mind. This lie is that we are separate from each other and what happens to me does not affect you.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Gentle Healing Lesson 130, Manual for Teachers, Text.  4-23-19

LESSON 130
It is impossible to see two worlds.

“No one can see a world his mind has not accorded value. And no one can fail to look upon what he believes he wants.”

This was a rude awakening when I first believed it. It is hard to believe I value the world as I see it now and yet, Jesus says that our world is a reflection of our thinking and that we see what we want to see and we believe what we see is really there. I see this at work on two levels.

What I see is a projection from my mind and so is not real and is not there and only appears to be there because I want it to be there. And on another level, how I see it is dependent on how I want to see it. And I will believe that the way I see it is the only way that it can be truly seen. Both of these levels represent my desires and neither level is true.

“It is impossible to see two worlds which have no overlap of any kind. Seek for the one; the other disappears.”

There are two worlds from which to choose, the real world and the illusion of a world. I’m grateful that this is our range of choice. I can spend 10 minutes on the toothpaste aisle trying to decide which I want, which brand and which type within that brand. This is much easier. I want the world of love or I want the world of fear. I know which one I choose by which one I experience. And if I experience the world of fear, I cannot reasonably deny that I want it.

I will no longer try to believe in a part of this world of illusion and a part of the real world and think this can work. Today, I will ask for strength beyond my own to deny a desire for illusions. Jesus reassures me that God will be there. He says that I have called on the great unfailing power and that it will take this giant step with me. He also says that I will see His thanks expressed in tangible perception and in truth. I look forward to seeing this.

“It is impossible to see two worlds. Let me accept the strength God offers me and see no value in this world, that I may find my freedom and deliverance.”

Regina’s Tips
This is where A Course in Miracles and other truth teachings can become a little difficult to accept. You may feel resistance to this message. However, let’s put any resistance we may feel aside and look at today’s lesson and ourselves objectively (without judgment).

We are told that we see this world because we value it. Is that true? There is a way you can find out. How much of your time is spent thinking about you and the world from your point-of-view? And how much of your time is spent in awareness-watching-awareness, turning attention away from the world and away from thought, and turning attention towards the Self?

If we look honestly at how we spend our time, we can see which we value more.

My thoughts
I have noticed that I have more time in the day to spend on meditation and on contemplation. I could spend quite a bit more time seeking to know my Self. But I also notice that often I don’t do that. I will watch TV or read a book. I will go shopping or spend time on Facebook. I will sometimes realize what I am doing, and decide to change my mind, but instead of using that time to ask the Holy Spirit to purify my mind and then giving Him my silent attention so He can do it, I will watch a Mooji video or read something spiritual. It sounds good, but is it really? Or is it just another way to avoid awakening? Is it just another decision to believe in the world dressed up as spiritual in nature? I set an intention right now to increase the time I spend in meditation because I do understand that I must choose one over the other and I know the one I want.

Manual for Teachers
“This time ask yourself whether your judgment or the Word of God is more likely to be true.”

The ego has an interpretation for everything, but it is always going to be in direct opposition to the Word of God. When I am not at peace, I look to my thoughts for the cause of my distress. Realizing that I must have asked the ego what something meant, I change my mind and ask the Holy Spirit to interpret for me.

When I do this my mind returns to peace. Do I feel sick? If so, I ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of those thoughts that manifest as sickness. If I am worried about money, I ask that the Holy Spirit correct my thinking because it cannot be that I lack anything.

If I have a relationship issue, I ask the Holy Spirit to help me see my brother as he is rather than as the ego personification that he is showing me. I ask for help to release the idea of differences and to recognize my brother as one with me. Every disagreement dissolves in the face of universal love.

I never have a problem that is caused by something outside my mind. I don’t care what my brother is doing or saying or what the situation seems to indicate, healing occurs when I question my thoughts. Are they in alignment with the thoughts I think with God? If not, I release them to the Holy Spirit and allow correction. This is how I have peace of mind most of the time. And this is how I regain peace of mind when I lose it.

Text
1 The alertness of the ego to the errors of other egos is not the kind of vigilance the Holy Spirit would have you maintain. Egos are critical in terms of the kind of “sense” they stand for. They understand this kind of sense, because it is sensible to them. To the Holy Spirit it makes no sense at all.

The Holy Spirit has encouraged me to be vigilant for the thoughts in my mind and to ask for correction when they are not in alignment with the thoughts I think with God. I ask Him to help me to use words that are in alignment with Truth. I agree to step back and let Him lead the way. I do this to the best of my ability. What I am not asked to do is to be vigilant for my brother’s thoughts and words.

Under no circumstance is it my job to keep an eye on anyone else and to judge the sense of what they say. It is not my job to correct them or set them straight. It doesn’t matter how “gently” I correct. It doesn’t matter how many of the right sounding words I use. It doesn’t matter how right it feels to me to do this. If I am watching someone else, judging the correctness of their words, whether I say anything to them or not, this is my error and it is my mind that needs correction.

When I used to do this it was most obvious on social media. There were just so many opportunities. I would read through the postings looking for the ones that were “right” and the ones that just didn’t quite hit the mark. Sometimes I would even tell them what was wrong with their posting. Of course, I would use my spiritual ego to do this so that it sounded spiritual. I told myself that I was helping. None of that was true. I was just using the ego to decide what made sense to it.

Now I always try to respond only to a direct question. If it is appropriate I might add my own experience. But I am vigilant for my motive because my spiritual ego is alive and well. I can indulge it, or I can disregard it. My choice. In all my groups, the guidelines are to share from our experience and to never correct another. I try always to live this. When I fail to do so, I forgive myself and try again.

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Gentle Healing Lesson 129, Manual for Teachers, Text.  4-22-19

Lesson 129
Beyond this world there is a world I want.

“Our emphasis is not on giving up the world, but on exchanging it for what is far more satisfying,”

“Value them not, and they will disappear. Esteem them, and they will seem real to you.”

I’m not spending too much time on recognizing the world as I see it is not something I want. I know that it is not. Even those small things I still cling to, the things I value, I do not value much. Even as I write about them, I am releasing them. I do understand that my value of them makes them real to me. When I worry about my weight or about my child’s problems, I make them real in my mind. I am learning to release these things, learning that I want to release them and learning that I can release them.

“Is it a loss to find a world instead where losing is impossible; where love endures forever, hate cannot exist and vengeance has no meaning? Is it loss to find all things you really want, and know they have no ending and they will remain exactly as you want them throughout time? Yet even they will be exchanged at last for what we cannot speak of, for you go from there to where words fail entirely, into a silence where the language is unspoken and yet surely understood.”

I understand this paragraph to mean that as I forgive the world I made through the projections of my guilt and hatred, I awaken to a world projected from the love and peace and joy that is in me and is me. It is the real world, the happy dream, and I know it is possible because I know people who have awakened to this world. And as wonderful as it is, it is not all there is.

From this purified and perfected world, we move into something for which there are no words. This is where we are lifted into God. I find that I am not interested in lingering on this idea because I cannot imagine it and I feel I need to place my focus on that part which needs my attention and my agreement. I am doing as Jesus asks me to do. I am sitting in quiet and contemplating the idea for today as I allow the Holy Spirit to purify my mind of all other beliefs.

“Beyond this world there is a world I want. I choose to see that world instead of this, for here is nothing that I really want.”

Regina’s Tips
Anyone who is familiar with Michael Langford’s work may have noticed “Choice A” and “Choice B” in today’s workbook lesson. These choices are laid out in Chapter 5 of ‘The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss.’ Here are some excerpts:

“The primary means to awaken the extremely intense desire for liberation is to carefully examine two choices everyday until the extremely intense desire for liberation awakens. …

“Choice A is Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss with no sorrow and no suffering. Choice A is Eternal Life. Choice A is to live as your true Self for all eternity. Choice A is absolutely perfect joy.

“Choice B is being identified with a body subject to suffering, sorrow, disease, death, violence, fear, anger, etc. Choice B is to allow an imposter called the ego to pretend to be yourself and to control you. Choice B is to allow an imposter called the ego, that has created all the wars, diseases, death, sorrow, suffering and evil that every human has ever experienced, to continue. Choice B is to have a temporary and therefore futile life that leads only to death.”

Today’s Course lesson asks us to look at these same choices.

We have found the pathway home. Now, let’s walk it.

My Thoughts
Both Langford and Jesus ask us to so two very important things. One is, as expressed by Michael Langford, “Co-operate with your Heart. Stop listening to your ego.” The other is to spend time in meditation today coming to know you Self. I intend to do both.

Manual for Teachers
“The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and yet His Word assures us that He loves the world.” 11. I

What is the world that God loves and therefore I can love as well? Jesus tells us that we cannot choose what the world is, but we can and do choose how we see it. This is how I am at peace most of the time. It is how I have learned to love the world. Because I consistently release ego thoughts of separation, I see the world differently than I used to. This is not perfect for me, yet. I still see the world through ego perception to some degree and sometimes more than other times. But enough has changed for me to understand what Jesus means here.

When our mind is sufficiently healed, we will see the real world, which will not have the elements familiar to us through our belief in the ego. There will be no sickness, hatred, suffering, fear or death. Then God will take the final step and the world will disappear altogether, at least the world as we envision it. Perhaps the world will be transformed so that it is a world of light and love only without form of any kind that we would recognize. I only say that because of something I read in the Course that said God would honor what we made because of who we are. I don’t really know what happens at that point. Neither does anyone else.

What I am most concerned with right now is what is before me. If I am unhappy, I need to ask the Holy Spirit to help me understand what went wrong. We were created Happiness and anything less is unreal. If I am having a relationship issue, I ask what it is I am to say or do. If I feel attacked or in lack, I ask what this is for, what I am to learn from it. I ask the gift it has to offer me. I recognize that nothing is happening to me but for me. I recognize that my problems are caused by my thinking, not by anyone else or anything else. Everything becomes my next step Home. As a result, my whole life has become happier and more peaceful than it ever has been. I see the world differently than I used to.

Text
III. The Correction of Error, P 5
5 When a brother behaves insanely, you can heal him only by perceiving the sanity in him. If you perceive his errors and accept them, you are accepting yours. If you want to give yours over to the Holy Spirit, you must do this with his. Unless this becomes the one way in which you handle all errors, you cannot understand how all errors are undone. How is this different from telling you that what you teach you learn? Your brother is as right as you are, and if you think he is wrong you are condemning yourself.

This paragraph tells me both why I must not accept my perception of my bothers insane behavior, and what to do with that perception. First, if I accept my perception that my bother is acting insanely, I cannot heal him because I heal through my certainty of health, and if I believe what I am trying to heal is real I have no certainty.

This gets worse because if I believe my brother can be in error, I believe in the error and so in believing in the error, I have now opened the possibility, (no, the probability) that I too am in error or will be in error. I have taught myself that error is real for everyone. The ego mind insists that this is true and anyone can see that it is true.

Here is what I say to the ego “proof” that I can see my brother is in error and that I often am in error, as well. I see the insane behavior for what it is, an ego reaction to fear. It is an ego reaction to an ego emotion. What has that got to do with reality? God did not create ego nor its effect, fear. Neither is real or true. I am seeing an illusion. An illusion can appear very real, but it cannot be real.

Now, this is how I get free of both the belief in my own insanity and that of my brother. I stop using this ego behavior to separate myself from my holy Self. Instead, wherever I see insane behavior or when I experience insane thinking in my own mind, I give my perception to the Holy Spirit to heal for me.

I notice my brother’s insane behavior and see it for what it is, but I do not mistake it for reality. If I do, momentarily, believe in it, I recognize what I have done. I have become as insane as I think my brother is. So I give that belief to the Holy Spirit to be corrected. From this healed place, I know the truth. I am as God created me and my brother is as God created him. No matter how confused my brother is about that, I know the truth and the light that is in my mind will extend to his and heal him.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Gentle Healing Lesson 128, Manual for Teachers, Text.  4-18-19

LESSON 128
The world I see holds nothing that I want.

“All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight limit you further.”

“Let nothing that relates to body thoughts delay your progress to salvation,”

“letting go all thought of values we have given to the world”

“We hold it purposeless within our minds”

I think I agree that the world holds nothing I want and yet, here I am. So what is it that I still want from the world? I am given clues throughout this lesson. When I try to do something that gives me greater value in the world. This could be how I look. Or it could be how people view me and how I view myself as a teacher, a minister, a parent. So much of that I have released. Some I still cling to but I loosen my hold on it every day.

What body thoughts am I interested in? I want to be healthy, slim -  well, slimmish. I want certain bodies in my life and others not to be there. I think that it is better to have one of those bodies near me than not, as if I could ever be alone when I am one with all that exists. That I can understand this concept but not feel it means that I am more identified with the body than with the spirit. I am willing for this to not be true anymore.

What values and what purpose have I given the world? I don’t know, really. I sometimes think about how I would feel if I had a sudden heart attack and lay there dying. What would I miss? What would I wish to experience one more time? The answer to those questions would help me to know the value and purpose I have given the world.

I think I would long to see and touch my children one more time. I would long to say I love you to them, to hug them. I would regret not seeing my grandchildren smile at me. I might give a thought to wishing I had taken the time to put my thoughts into a book I could leave behind. I don’t have a beloved pet, nor do I care much for nature. I have no interest in fame or wealth. So nothing to regret there.

I notice that now I am getting older and closer to saying goodbye to this world, I do feel a pang of regret for never again, in this life at least, experiencing the love of a man. That kind of surprised me. I thought of past relationships and of the happy moments in them and felt sad not to do that again, not sad enough to go for it, but just a little grief for lost opportunity.

As I look at this writing, I think that I don’t have a lot to release before I can say that the world holds nothing that I want. I think that not needing much from the world makes what I do have even better because there is no clinginess to it. Without need, there is no fear of loss so there is only pleasure in the moment and then moving onto the next moment.

Regina’s Tips

One way to let go of our value in the world and increase our desire for awakening is to let tragedy strike so that we are disillusioned by the world. However, today’s workbook lesson offers a gentler solution:

“Pause and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world, when you release your mind from chains and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home.”

I told you that spiritual practice itself motivates me to spiritual practice. That is the gentler method that is recommended by the Course. Practice awareness-watching-awareness anyway, even if you do not think you are ready to let go of the world, and the practice itself will prepare you for awakening.

My Thoughts
This is the method I want, to be still and let my mind be healed by the Holy Spirit. I am determined to do this. I know that the Self is going to bring me to awakening and it will do so by whatever means are necessary. I prefer to choose the gentle way rather than relying on tragedy to impel me toward awakening.

Regina also quotes Michael Langford as saying that ultimately all things disappear, the world, the universe, the galaxies. I noticed that there was a reaction in me. Is Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss enough? What will we do? That is the ego in my mind worrying about being bored with nothing to do, nothing to see. I’m not too concerned about that. By the time I get to this part, I will have discovered what being has to offer. Right now, I will concern myself with letting go of the belief that my body size and shape matter. ~smile~

Manual for Teachers
In releasing the judgmental thought, I am teaching myself that I want to let go of the desire to judge.

Today, I am asking the Holy Spirit to bring these judgments to my attention, and when He does so, I am fully committed to accepting correction for my errors. I don’t want to add to the misery we suffer as we keep these thoughts in our mind. I want to do this with enthusiasm and with joy knowing that I am helping us all awaken through my efforts. Letting go of the desire to judge will bring us all to the peace of God. It might seem like work to be vigilant, but the most important element in this decision is the unequivocal desire for freedom from the burden of judging. As Jesus says, “Can it be difficult to want but this?”

Text
Christ is in me, and where He is God must be, for Christ is part of Him. 9.I: 14

God’s Will is already possible. We don’t have to do anything to make that true; it simply is. All we have to do to experience reality is to accept it. We accept reality when we stop trying to make it something else. We distort reality when we believe the ego thoughts in our mind. When we forgive those thoughts we reveal the truth and know reality.

When we believe the ego thoughts we suffer because when we distort reality, we feel like we are trying to make ourselves unreal. This sense of unreality leads to depression, anxiety and ultimately panic. Jesus says when this happens we should not look beyond ourselves for truth, but to look within. He doesn’t mean to look within at the ego thoughts to make sense of things, but to look within for the Christ, for God. That is where we find reality.

In our confusion it is hard to believe that Christ is in us and that if Christ is in us, God must also be in us. But this is what Jesus is telling us. Our true nature, our reality is that we are in God and God is in us. We cannot lose ourselves, but can only lose the awareness of our Self. This reality can go nowhere and can not be changed. It remains as it was created. But to not know it is to suffer.

This is why we are here where we are now, studying A Course in Miracles, following our path Home. We are awakening to this truth, to reality. Every day when I pick up the Course and read my paragraph, I ask within for guidance. I ask for clarity. I ask that I be led Home through these words and through the experience of these words.

I am looking at a book, but it is a book we wrote with Jesus, and as I read it, I am not asking anyone else what it means. I am looking within to the Truth that is in my mind, the Truth that was placed there for this purpose. As I hear the Voice for God, the memory of my Self returns to me.

Sometimes I find a dark unexplored corner in my mind and briefly I am afraid. I wonder if the truth is true or if I am crazy to believe this stuff I read in the Course, but what I cannot deny, what is indisputable is the Voice that speaks to me. That Voice is always there, gentle but convincing.

It gives me Its thoughts, thoughts I cannot find in the ego thinking mind. I hear that Voice and I hear it within me, and I know I am not the ego self. I know I am part of the Christ Mind. And if Christ is in me, then God, Which is in Christ, is also in me. I can rest in that knowledge and be at peace. That is the reality, the only reality.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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