Together, We Light the Way

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

Gentle Healing Lesson 146, Manual for Teachers, Text.  5-31-19

Lesson 146
My mind holds only what I think with God.

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

(132) I loose the world from all I thought it was.

No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth because the mind holds only what is thought with God. The truth is already in the mind of the seeker. We know the truth. When that doesn’t seem to be the case, it is because we are deliberately hiding it from ourselves. Our purpose for being here now is to remember what we decided to forget. How hard could this be?

To remember what I know, I must forget what I use to obscure the truth. I must loose the world from all I thought it was, from all I made of it. The world is a place to be something I am not. It is a place for the eternally innocent to pretend they are guilty and then to project the blame on something or someone else so they can pretend they are not guilty at the expense of another aspect of their Self. It is an insane asylum. Why would I not gladly loose it from this insanity?

Regina’s Tips
I thought my happiness resided in the world.

My thoughts
That is exactly why we don’t just set the world aside and wake up. We still believe that our happiness resides in the world. We find just enough happiness to keep us from giving up and we keep searching no matter how fruitless the search turns out to be. Do I suffer from pain? Maybe I will find a magic solution to that pain. Did my relationship fall apart? Maybe the next one will be perfect. Even if that has not ever happened, it might this time. I loose the world from all I thought it was because I was wrong to think that my happiness lay in it.

Manual for Teachers
14. HOW WILL THE WORLD END? P 2
2 Until forgiveness is complete, the world does have a purpose. It becomes the home in which forgiveness is born, and where it grows and becomes stronger and more all-embracing. Here is it nourished, for here it is needed. A gentle savior, born where sin was made and guilt seemed real. Here is His home, for here there is need of Him indeed. He brings the ending of the world with Him. It is His Call God’s teachers answer, turning to Him in silence to receive His Word. The world will end when all things in it have been rightly judged by His judgment. The world will end with the benediction of holiness upon it. When not one thought of sin remains, the world is over. It will not be destroyed nor attacked nor even touched. It will merely cease to seem to be.

Journal
The world is useful to us as it is where we will forgive until forgiveness is complete. I see how that is true. The world is a projection of our beliefs and so it will accurately mirror what is in the mind that needs healing. If I judge someone, I know that I still believe that I can judge, that I could ever know enough to judge. Realizing this and understanding that it is a fallacy, I can show the Holy Spirit this tendency and ask Him to judge for me. This is a way to use the world for the purpose of forgiveness.

If I feel guilty for a past deed, I am using the idea of time (which is part of the virtual world we believe we are in) to keep the dream going. The past does not exist unless I keep it alive with my thoughts about it and in so doing, I bring the past into the present and thus assure the future will be the same. Voila! The illusion continues. As I began to realize what I was doing, I made a decision to stop. It has taken a while to let go of the past guilt but I think it’s done now. If there is any that I have not released, I am ready to do so.

These are just two ways we can use the world to undo the world. There are many other ways. I just pay close attention to my thoughts and when I see judgment in them, I remember my purpose and I ask the Holy Spirit for His help in seeing clearly. I also appreciate that Jesus says the world is not going out in a bang. It is not to be destroyed or attacked, but will simply vanish, and do so with the benediction of holiness upon it. That’s a good thing to know because it can be easy to slip into judgment of the world and to think it is something to hate or to regret and that isn’t true. It is simply something to release from our minds, not out of guilt but out of disinterest in that which upholds it, the thought of sin.

Text
This is from Chapter 9. It is an experience I wrote about in my journal that really helped me understand how I could want healing and yet, not want it.

II. The Answer to Prayer, P 2
2 Let us suppose, then, that what you ask of the Holy Spirit is what you really want, but you are still afraid of it. Should this be the case, your attainment of it would no longer be what you want. This is why certain specific forms of healing are not achieved, even when the state of healing is. An individual may ask for physical healing because he is fearful of bodily harm. At the same time, if he were healed physically, the threat to his thought system might be considerably more fearful to him than its physical expression. In this case he is not really asking for release from fear, but for the removal of a symptom that he himself selected. This request is, therefore, not for healing at all.

I completely understand this paragraph and totally accept it. The logic is absolutely clear; if I ask for something, but am afraid of it, then I don’t really want it. However, I have noticed that sometimes it is hard to see that I am asking for something and at the same time afraid I will receive it. I think I really want the healing, and can’t understand why I don’t receive it.

I had a problem at work last week and I was angry about it. I don’t like that feeling anymore and I know it is not in alignment with my goal of awakening to project onto my brother. So I asked for the Atonement in this situation. As I learned from Nouk, “Holy Spirit, please help me to forgive myself for using my boss to attack myself and to separate from your Love as my Holy Self.”

I had to work at this for a while because I kept going back to thinking how wrong he was. I felt threatened by him and so I was afraid to give up my belief that he was attacking me. After all, how could I defend myself if I turned my back on his attack? This is an example of asking for healing, but being afraid of the healing, and so not really wanting the answer. After a day and a half of returning to Spirit with a renewed desire to be healed, I felt like it was undone.

Then I went back to work. As soon as I saw him, I was upset again. Holy cow! Was I ever going to be free of this? I asked the Holy Spirit to look at this with me again and to give me some clarity about it. The thought that came to me was that this could not possibly be his fault because it is my story. I made this story through my desire to be seen as unfairly treated, and separate from my brother. How could it be his fault?

I know this is true. I have no doubt that it is true. And yet, here I was watching the ego mind busily assassinating my brother and stealing my peace. As the day wore on, I felt worse and worse. Looking at my mind I realized I felt guilty and afraid because I was not accepting healing. I know it is not the Holy Spirit ignoring me, so it must be me not really wanting the healing.

Again, I spoke to the Holy Spirit. I knew guilt is not real and that I was making that up. I knew that I want to awaken more than I want this man to be guilty. I saw that I was obviously, for a while, afraid of the answer. But I wanted the answer and so I asked for healing again, this time for the guilt and fear in my mind. I asked Him why I felt so bad and had so much trouble letting this go when it was so clear to me how I made this image from a desire based on a false belief.

What He showed me is that I asked for healing and healing was accomplished in that moment of asking. He showed me that the ego does not want to let go of the grievance and so my ego mind keeps offering it to me. The ego says that I am guilty for not being free of this situation. It says that I am guilty for feeling guilty. I was mesmerized by this circular thinking. The Holy Spirit told me to look away.

That was that! As soon as I looked away, I was free of the guilty feelings and free of the desire to project it onto someone else. Sometimes it is that simple. I refocused my attention on what is true rather than looking at the illusion of guilt. Now the thought that I was wronged comes into my mind at odd times, but I am not attracted to it, and so have no emotional reaction. I just quietly hand it over to the Holy Spirit and enjoy the peace of mind that is my right.

© 2019, 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

Gentle Healing Lesson 145, Manual for Teachers, Text.  5-29-19

LESSON 145
My mind holds only what I think with God.

(129) Beyond this world there is a world I want.

(130) It is impossible to see two worlds.

Ultimately, there are no worlds to see, but for now, we have a choice. We can live our lives primarily in the world of ego, listening to that voice, letting ego interpret what we see. Or we can live in the real world. In the real world we continue to dream but now the dream is a happy one. We know the world is not reality and we know that we are no longer interested in what the ego thinks. We know who we are and we rejoice in that knowledge. But what we cannot do is live in both at the same moment.

I can be aware that my son has pneumonia again and I can be afraid for him. Or I can be aware that my son has pneumonia again and I can accept this unfoldment of his life as perfect for him at this time knowing that it will change and that his essence is unaffected by the body changes.

But I cannot be afraid for him and know he is safe. Two different worlds, two different interpretations of the same situation, but only one will be true for me. I choose carefully as I place my attention on one or another interpretation because my awareness is powerful. My happiness is at stake as is my evolution toward awakening.

Regina’s Tips
It is impossible to see two worlds. Attention will either go out towards the world and thought or it will go in towards awareness. It cannot go in two directions at once. Anything that keeps me from being aware of myself as awareness or as the watcher is a defense against truth for me.

My thoughts
This tip is the one that really stands out for me. When I reject the ego’s interpretation of Toby’s illness, it is an inward seeking that provides the alternate understanding of how to see the experience of a son with repeated bouts of pneumonia. I didn’t come up with that new interpretation by thinking about it. I had to become quiet and allow it to come to me and I could not have received it if I had been focused on the problem and how to fix it.

Manual for Teachers
14. HOW WILL THE WORLD END?

1 Can what has no beginning really end? The world will end in an illusion, as it began. Yet will its ending be an illusion of mercy. The illusion of forgiveness, complete, excluding no one, limitless in gentleness, will cover it, hiding all evil, concealing all sin and ending guilt forever. So ends the world that guilt had made, for now it has no purpose and is gone. The father of illusions is the belief that they have a purpose; that they serve a need or gratify a want. Perceived as purposeless, they are no longer seen. Their uselessness is recognized, and they are gone. How but in this way are all illusions ended? They have been brought to truth, and truth saw them not. It merely overlooked the meaningless.

Journal
How does the world end? Through forgiveness. The world is an illusion of sin and guilt and forgiveness is the illusion that ends it. Forgiveness is an illusion because guilt is an illusion and so there is nothing to forgive. The illusions of guilt and fear, sin and evil, exist in our minds only as long as we see a need for them.

When we forgive that illusion, the illusion of need, they will no longer exist. Without a need they are useless and who would hold onto something without a use? I love the ending of this paragraph: “They have been brought to truth, and truth saw them not. It merely overlooked the meaningless.”

We are learning to overlook the meaningless, too. We do this one thought at a time for a while and then as we see the connection, one belief at a time. If I think a friend is guilty and a relative is guilty and a politician is guilty and a criminal is guilty, and as I begin to see that what all these perceptions have in common is me, I realize that it is my belief in guilt that is the common denominator.

I see how that belief is the filter through which I see a world of pain and suffering, a world that seems to attack me at every turn. In the past I had tried to change the world, to defend myself from attack and it was hopeless. Now I understand that the solution lies within with the belief that sourced all of fear with its many forms.

What takes the place of guilt as I systematically release my belief in it? Love takes its place because it is love the guilt was obscuring. Love causes no harm. Love reveals our oneness and assures peace. Love is what I am in God.

Text
Contemplation of Deciding with God, Not Against God
To decide with God, I must let go of the insane idea that I am not as God created me. When I contemplated this the first time I felt like it was almost impossible. It felt like these ideas of weakness and sin are so strongly reinforced in me that I continue to return to them. But each time I made a choice for God, I became stronger in my faith in God’s Word, and the easier it was to turn from the ego beliefs.

Now it feels so much easier and my focus is on how very true this meditation is. I cannot be outside God because there is no outside God to be in. My mind is powerful because God is powerful and my mind holds only what I think with God. My identity is God because that is how

He created me, to be part of Him for eternity.

I still slip into ego thinking at times, but the truth is so much stronger in me that I don’t stay there. I realize that I have equal access to my holy mind and that who I am, my true Self, answers for me if I choose that. Occasionally, I feel like I’m stuck in my ego thinking but I also know that I can extricate myself through my desire for the truth.

 

That is my point of choice and it is incredibly powerful. I might feel like I am pulling against a great force, but if I persist, I see that it loosens and I am free. That happened for me last night. I was concerned about my son because he has been so sick and I haven’t heard from him lately. I felt myself falling into a story and I wanted out. At first, it felt like I was glued to that story and I had no control, but I knew that couldn’t be true. I kept my mind moving toward God and thoughts came to me that helped. Pretty quickly, I was at peace.

 

© 2019, 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

Gentle Healing Lesson 144, Manual for Teachers, Text.  5-27-19

LESSON 144
My mind holds only what I think with God.

(127) There is no love but God’s.

(128) The world I see holds nothing that I want.

When I contemplate the world, I know it has no value because it is not Love. There are moments when it reflects that love and those moments are the true miracles. In every disaster, there are heroes who give their lives to protect others, who step forward to help when others are in need. When I read those stories, I cry because it is so beautiful to see God’s Love reflected even in the dream. Even in shows where someone is kind, giving, loving, I cry for the beauty of it.

We are the Love that is God and so love echoes all around us and in us and the more we see its value the more we are drawn to the loving and to express the loving. We can suppress love but we cannot destroy it or even change it in the minutest of ways, because of the Source of Love from which all loving expressions flow. We can only learn that we are that Love as well and we learn that by being loving and by desiring only love.

It is helpful to learn what is not a reflection of love. Selfishness, judgment, fearfulness and guilt are not love and so no part of these behaviors is of God and nothing done through them will bring happiness and peace. None of those ideas are part of my mind which holds only God. They are ego ideas and part of the world made to explore all things not God. I want no part of that world.

And yet, here I am, so I must want to be here. I can be here to play and to punish. I can be here in pretense that I am a victim of this world and that this is somehow normal and inevitable, that this is all there is. I can take it all in and experience it fully and I should. But there is another way of being in the world that releases me from the world. There is a higher purpose for being here and every morning and every night I am setting an intention to know the unique form of that purpose, the form meant for me, and then I spend a few minutes letting my mind imagine living that purpose and the joy it brings me.

Regina’s Tips

“My mind holds only what I think with God.”

The workbook instructions for the review period say, “It is this thought that fully guarantees salvation to the Son. For in his mind no thoughts can dwell but those his Father shares. Lack of forgiveness blocks this thought from his awareness. Yet it is forever true.”

This means that when we let our attention dwell with any thought, emotion or desire that is inevitably temporary, or when we let our attention dwell with anything that it cannot dwell on eternally, we block our realization of truth.

My Thoughts
When my mind dwells on the world of form that form becomes an obstruction to what is true, that is the thoughts I think with God. I dwell on the world when I get anxious about time, when I worry about money, when I feel upset about a relationship. When I dwell there, I turn to the ego to see what it means and what I can do to save myself.

On the other hand, when these things come up, I can recognize that they are not worthy of my continued attention. If something needs to be done in the world, I can ask within what it means and how it must be dealt with, then let it go. This frees me to “dwell in the House of the Lord” as the Bible phrases it. I think of it as dwelling in the Heart where I commune with God.

Manual for Teachers
13. WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE? P 7
8 Teacher of God, do not forget the meaning of sacrifice, and remember what each decision you make must mean in terms of cost. Decide for God, and everything is given you at no cost at all. Decide against Him, and you choose nothing, at the expense of the awareness of everything. What would you teach? Remember only what you would learn. For it is here that your concern should be. Atonement is for you. Your learning claims it and your learning gives it. The world contains it not. But learn this course and it is yours. God holds out His Word to you, for He has need of teachers. What other way is there to save His Son?

Journal

The responsibility that is ours to meet would feel unbearable if we were alone in meeting it, but we are not. We have all the help we need. God, Himself, holds out His Word to us. He needs us, His teachers. It is no sacrifice to answer this call. All we need do is decide for God. I gladly accept this call.

It is late in the night and I am unable to sleep. When things like this happen and I call for help and hear no answering Voice, I doubt myself and doubt the words I read. But I know that doubt is the voice of ego. If I need sleep, I will sleep. If I don’t sleep, I don’t need it. Maybe this writing is what was calling me out of my bed and once done, I will be called back to it.

What will I teach? I will teach love and oneness because that is what I want to learn. It is why I am here, my purpose and my function. I will stay vigilant for any thoughts that are not loving and gladly sacrifice them. I feel so close to God tonight, so filled with love, I think that I will always feel this, surely. I know from experience that it is likely to fade in the day when things are hectic and noisy and the world pulls on my attention. But I will bring this feeling with me and so the world will only claim a part of my mind, the rest of my mind will remember my purpose.

Text

It is impossible for me to be anything except whole and one.

Holy Spirit, I understand that I am being told that Creation is the extension of God and that it can never change or be changed. I read; “We are creation; we the Sons of God.” I notice a thrill of recognition. But I also notice a seed of doubt that quickly grows as I consider it. I ask myself what is more likely, that I am the Son of God with all the power and creative force of God, or that I am simply Myron, alone and limited and fragile, and daily coming closer to the end of my pitiful life? The ego thought of separation in my mind makes me want to curl up in the corner and hide from the thought of holiness.

Holy Spirit: Holy Son of God, turn your face from the lies of ego. It tells sad and frightening stories to scare the child it dreamed. You are so afraid of opening your heart to your loving Father because you feel as if you swim in a lake of guilt; guilt so deep and so thick it will hold you forever bound in its dark and awful depths. These dreams of fear are the source for all the thousands of stories you have lived.

Each story tells you that you are unworthy and guilty and doomed. Even your happy stories are often based on someone else’s loss. The best story you have ever made is laced with dread that it will soon end. Why would the perfect Son of a perfect God live in fear and dread of his own power? Why would he embrace guilt with such fearsome determination?

Holy One, put away your toys of self-destruction. Take up, instead, the hand of your brother and come to Me, for your guilt is unfounded, your fear an illusion. Your Father smiles with gentle tenderness at your playful efforts to create outside your own nature. God is your loving Father, not an angry judge.

I assure you that you have come to the truth because you recognize the truth. You hear it and you feel the answering call from deep within your holy mind. Do not look at the flimsy excuse for proof of failure and punishment the ego offers. Just pull your eyes from its insane stories and know that only God is true. You can play at being less, but you cannot do anything in your play that would make you less than you were created. Only your thoughts condemn you; God but loves you.

© 2019, 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

Gentle Healing Lesson 143, Manual for Teachers, Text.  5-24-19

LESSON 143
My mind holds only what I think with God.

(125) In quiet I receive God’s Word today.

(126) All that I give is given to myself.

This morning I am alone in my house. It is peaceful and quiet. I am studying the Course and writing in my journal. I am receptive to God’s Word today. I notice it says His Word, not words. What is His Word? It is, I think, that I Am. I am What He created and I am as He created me. I receive that Word. I open my heart to it. I absorb it, not dissect it or think about it, just receive it. As I meditated on it, something occurred. If I were to try for a word, it might be, purification.

I will be leaving for lunch with my family today. I will no longer be cocooned in the peaceful silence of my home. But there is no reason I cannot continue to receive God’s Word because it is only my mind that needs to be quiet. I will also be aware of what I give while we are together this afternoon. If I remember that my mind holds only what I think with God and that in quiet I receive His Word, that is all I will give. In the giving of it, I will receive it. Imagine that! Imagine love moving from me and to me in an unending flow.

Regina’s Tips
Here is my contemplation of today’s review lessons with that thought in mind:

In quiet I receive God’s Word today. All of the thoughts that come and go in my consciousness are not God’s Word, because God’s Word is the Word, that which is before everything. In order to know God’s Word, I must look beyond all of the words that distract from it. I must enter into the quiet, where God’s Word is known; not heard, but known. God’s Word is not other than my Self. In quiet, I realize that today.

All that I give is given to myself. Why do my thoughts appear so mesmerizing, those words that are temporary and are not the eternal Word of God? If I close my eyes and look, I find only one power that infuses thought with power. That power is my attention. I am the power that infuses thought with apparent power. All that I give attention to, I give to myself. The question then becomes, what do I want to give attention to? That is the same as asking, what do I want to have power over me?

My Thoughts
In Regina’s contemplation on God’s Word, she expressed very well what I was feeling, that God’s Word is my Self. My intention today is to look past my thoughts and all the words that come from me and to me, to be aware of what does not change. In setting that intention, I expect to succeed. I wonder what that will look like this afternoon.

What really stood out to me in the “All that is give is given to myself” contemplation by Regina was that we give power to thought through our attention. As Regina says, The question then becomes, what do I want to give attention to? That is the same as asking, what do I want to have power over me?

All day long thoughts come and go, but what do I empower through my attention? No doubt, this afternoon with so many people gathered and a lot of conversation going on, thoughts about this will enter my mind. Some will be judgmental thoughts because that is what the ego does. If I am not interested in those thoughts they will simply pass through my mind.

If I become interested in a judgmental thought, I will have given it power over me. This is a good thing to know. Now I can make a good decision about my thoughts. If I notice a judgmental thought that attracts me, I can question it and then release it so that its power to affect me is minimal. I’ve noticed that the more I do this, the less often certain thoughts show up.

Manual for Teachers
13. WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE? P 7
7 Do not forget that sacrifice is total. There are no half sacrifices. You cannot give up Heaven partially. You cannot be a little bit in hell. The Word of God has no exceptions. It is this that makes it holy and beyond the world. It is its holiness that points to God. It is its holiness that makes you safe. It is denied if you attack any brother for anything. For it is here the split with God occurs. A split that is impossible. A split that cannot happen. Yet a split in which you surely will believe, because you have set up a situation that is impossible. And in this situation the impossible can seem to happen. It seems to happen at the “sacrifice” of truth.

As I was reading this paragraph, I was struck by a thought. I tend to think of the separation, the tiny mad idea, as something that we chose a long time ago and now we are trying to awaken from that dream of being separate from each other and from God. But, really, I make that choice for the tiny mad idea every time I attack anyone. It is not something that happened once, but an ongoing choice. I undo the tiny mad idea with its hellish consequences by not making the choice for attack anymore.

I also understand what Jesus says about sacrifice being total. There is only God but in our mind, there is also the idea of not-God or separation. Because it is in our mind, it seems to be real. So, there is God and there is separation. I cannot be in both places at the same time. I cannot bring separation into God because that would change God and God cannot be changed. I cannot bring God into attack either because if God were in the illusion then God would be an illusion, too. When I choose to attack, judge, hold a grievance or any other separation effect, I sacrifice God. It is total. In that moment, I have, again, kicked myself out of Heaven.

I started being vigilant for my attack thoughts because I wanted to feel better and have a better life. The purpose of my practice changed as I realized that I wanted to awaken from the dream of separation and this would help me do that. Now, I have a slightly different perspective on this and it is even more motivating. Withdrawing my projections isn’t just helping me to awaken, it is awakening.

Text
“The Holy Spirit promotes healing by looking beyond it to what the children of God were before healing was needed, and will be when they have been healed.” T-5.II

When I think of this, I envision a timeline on which I exist with an ego error in my mind that is keeping me in hell. Then I ask the Holy Spirit to heal that error and He looks not at the error (because He knows all errors are the same error) but at what I was before the error and after the error. Because He does not acknowledge the error, it is not there. I see that chunk of time falling away. Jesus says that if we don’t want a thought, the Holy Spirit will remove it for us. This is how I envision it being done and how I imagine we save thousands of years.

© 2019, 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

Gentle Healing Lesson 142, Manual for Teachers, Text.  5-21-19

LESSON 142
My mind holds only what I think with God.

(123) I thank my Father for His gifts to me.

(124) Let me remember I am one with God.

My mind holds only what I think with God. That chatter is in the ego and not in my real mind, my Self, Awareness. I am not always aware of what is in my true mind because the chatter distracts me and brings me into the virtual reality show going on there. But I am learning to let the chatter be and to sink below it to the sweet silence beneath.

There I don’t find words so much as feelings; not emotions, feelings. I feel love and joy and mostly peace. Those are God’s gifts to me and they come because for those moments I am in the stillness of my true mind, I feel God. I don’t feel the bliss of it, but the reflection of that oneness. Doubtless, I will go deeper as I continue this practice. I am thankful for my Father’s gifts to me.

What I bring back from those moments is a lingering peace and lightness that blesses the day and those who share it with me. I also, at times when it is needed, bring inspired thinking with me, ideas that guide me in my life and toward my awakening. I am grateful to my Father for those gifts as well.

Regina’s Tips
My mind holds only what I think with God.

Each day during the review period, be sure to start with five minutes contemplating this thought. You don’t need to write anything about it, although you can if something begins to come that you want to write down. However, be sure to spend five minutes marinating in this thought. Assume that it is preparing you for what will follow next, even if you do not notice the preparation at all.

Manual for Teachers

13. WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE? P 6
6 You may believe this course requires sacrifice of all you really hold dear. In one sense this is true, for you hold dear the things that crucify God’s Son, and it is the course’s aim to set him free. But do not be mistaken about what sacrifice means. It always means the giving up of what you want. And what, O teacher of God, is it that you want? You have been called by God, and you have answered. Would you now sacrifice that Call? Few have heard it as yet, and they can but turn to you. There is no other hope in all the world that they can trust. There is no other voice in all the world that echoes God’s. If you would sacrifice the truth, they stay in hell. And if they stay, you will remain with them.

Journal
I used to think I was being asked to sacrifice. I thought that giving up my special relationships was a sacrifice I could hardly imagine. I have discovered that it is no sacrifice at all and what is arising in those relationships is so sublime that I can hardly believe it. And this is not complete as yet, so who knows how much better it becomes as I allow the Holy Spirit to transform them into holy relationships.

I thought I was being asked to give up the little joy I had in the world, that I had to hate the world and do my best to undo it. But I discovered that, like my relationships, letting the world be transformed was not a loss but was actually a wonderful thing. I enjoy the world so much more now that I am learning to see it differently. Instead of focusing on what I made of it through my judgments, I am focused on seeing the Love that holds it together, seeing the holiness in it that is in everything because God is in everything.

I never forget that I have been called by God and that the Sonship depends on me to do my part in the Atonement. I never forget how important this is and I never forget that the salvation of my brother is as important to me as is my own because they are the same. No one returns to God without all of us because we are one.

Text
The world as we see it has never existed anywhere except in our minds, and now it exists only in our memories of it. We are so entangled with that memory that we believe it is happening right now and this is our life. We keep the memory alive by believing in it and we believe in it because we are using our ego mind to interpret and judge it. As long as we keep doing this, we will suffer the illusion.

We can stop remembering the false world we made simply by deciding with God rather than the ego. First, we must accept that our decisions are the cause of what we see and then we must accept that there is another way to see. I love Lesson 152 because this is the clearest statement of fact. There is no compromise in this lesson. We make the world with our decisions and we undo it with our decisions.

For a decision to have this power it must be made in union and so for every decision we make we must join with either the ego or the Holy Spirit. So, if I feel angry it must be that I asked the ego what the situation meant and from that interpretation, anger arose and I fall deeper into the memory of a world outside God as if it could ever have been real. But I believe it is and so it is true for me and I suffer for it.

Eventually, the pain will be too great and I will have to make a different decision. This time, I will ask the Holy Spirit what it means and as I accept His answer, the miracle is inserted into the dream and everything changes and I am saved from a thousand years of suffering.

© 2019, 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

Gentle Healing Lesson 141, Manual for Teachers, Text.  5-13-19

LESSON 141
My mind holds only what I think with God.

(121) Forgiveness is the key to happiness.

(122) Forgiveness offers everything I want.

I went into silence and waited. The first thing I was given was the reminder that I have been worried about my son. I believe that my son is suffering and if I believe in his suffering then I must also believe I suffer. I waited to hear what was next.

Forgiveness is the key to happiness and it offers everything I want, so I forgive the belief in suffering. I was given this:

If my son’s sad story is true then everyone’s sad story is true and the world is real.

But, forgiveness is the key to happiness and forgiveness is everything I want.

I forgive the belief that the world is real. If the world is not real, then my son’s story is not real. My son is safe.

I release the story of my son to the Holy Spirit. I don’t want it anymore. My mind holds only what I think with God. This is a fact, all else is self-deception.

I waited to hear what was next.

Oh, I forgive the belief in the world. Only forgiveness will bring me happiness. The world never will. If I believe in the world, I believe in suffering.  I release this belief to the Holy Spirit. It is a self-deception that cannot take the place of truth.

The ego cannot accept that this is all there is to the process. It wants to keep trying to make things change, to at least concentrate hard on the idea. But I know from experience that I have only one part in this process, that is, to let go of what does not bring peace, that is, to forgive. Job done.

Regina’s Tips
The dictionary defines ‘think’ as “to have a conscious mind” or “to have in consciousness.”

Therefore, “My mind holds only what I think with God” means that anything we are conscious of that is not truth is temporary. Only truth is lasting. And it is this simple fact that sets the stage for the contemplation of every lesson that we will review over the next ten days.

Sometimes A Course in Miracles uses the term “real thoughts” to refer to the thoughts we think with God. Real thoughts are the environment of pure consciousness. You can think of them as attitudes or ways of being.

Real thoughts include:

~ All-is-well (peace)
~ Open embracing acceptance (love)
~ An inherent sense freedom—a sense of soaring from within (joy)
~ Intimacy with everything (oneness).

Patience, allowance and compassion are the reflections of our real thoughts.

So, “My mind holds only what I think with God” means that only these qualities are lasting. Everything else that appears in consciousness is temporary and passing.

My Thoughts

Yes, even as I contemplate the idea of forgiving my belief in suffering and in the world, I experience peace, and love. I feel free and joyful. I experience intimacy with everything. I walked into my bedroom to fold some clothes and I loved my bedroom. I had to smile. There is nothing about my bedroom that evokes those feelings. It is simply that I am still feeling oneness with everything and so my bedroom brings me joy as does everything else. Oneness brings joy. I think of my son and I feel this same joy and heart-soaring love. I pray to never lose sight of the forgiven world. May I be aware only of what I think with God.

Manual for Teachers
13. WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE? P 5
5 What is the real meaning of sacrifice? It is the cost of believing in illusions. It is the price that must be paid for the denial of truth. There is no pleasure of the world that does not demand this, for otherwise the pleasure would be seen as pain, and no one asks for pain if he recognizes it. It is the idea of sacrifice that makes him blind. He does not see what he is asking for. And so he seeks it in a thousand ways and in a thousand places, each time believing it is there, and each time disappointed in the end. “Seek but do not find” remains this world’s stern decree, and no one who pursues the world’s goal can do otherwise.

Journal

“Seek but do not find” is going to occur if I pursue the world’s goals. I don’t need to be convinced of that as I have spent most of my life trying to make that work. It doesn’t. No matter what I try for and how close I come to achieving it, I am left dissatisfied. The world says I need to have lots of money, many friends, relationships that give me what I want, health, beauty, travel, and on and on. I’ve had a lot of what the world offers and I have had times when there was not enough. Either way, I was left wanting.

Nothing changed until I found A Course in Miracles and stopped listening to the ego tell me what it was that I needed to achieve in the world. Now I use the world to help me awaken. I find satisfaction in releasing guilt and happiness in extending love. I have stopped judging everything that happens and simply accept it as perfect. After all, everything is in my best interests, and if I make that assumption, I begin to see the value and to appreciate the circumstances rather than to fight them. Giving up the goals of the world is no sacrifice at all.

Text

C 28: V. 2: 4-7

Where fear has gone there love must come, because there are but these alternatives. Where one appears, the other disappears. And which you share becomes the only one you have. You have the one that you accept, because it is the only one you wish to have.

What came clear to me is that fear is a choice. I don’t have to feel it, and if I do feel it, I can choose otherwise. All it takes is vigilance and willingness. I notice I feel anxious or worried and I ask myself what I was thinking that triggered those feelings in me. Then I realize that the thoughts that appear in my mind are harmless to me unless I choose to believe them.

If a thought is causing me discomfort, it cannot be a thought of God and so it does not belong in my holy mind. I can ask the Holy Spirit to remove it for me and if I am truly done with it, the belief in that thought is gone. It is a miracle. If I am not done with it, I go back and do it again. I have had thoughts that I valued too much to give up right away no matter how much discomfort they cause, but I have never had a thought I refused to give up eventually.

© 2019, 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

Gentle Healing Lesson 140, Manual for Teachers, Text.  5-9-19

Lesson 140
Only salvation can be said to cure.

“He is not healed. He merely had a dream that he was sick, and in the dream he found a magic formula to make him well. Yet he has not awakened from the dream, and so his mind remains exactly as it was before.”

There is only one way to be healed and that is through forgiveness. Nothing else works. Some forms of magic will bring relief, but will not cure the mind that believes in guilt. Doctors, medicine, energy work, crystals and oils, homeopathy, all of these are magic. There is nothing wrong with using them if that is what must be done to get relief.

Sometimes the mind cannot make the leap that brings true healing and there is nothing to be gained from suffering. But it does not help to believe that some forms of magic are better or more spiritual. It also does not help to believe that magic actually cures. That just delays actual healing.

“One either sleeps or wakens. There is nothing in between.”

Here is another of those uncompromising statements from Jesus. I have ignored this one and insisted on compromises but it didn’t do me any good to do so. It remains true. Dreaming that I am sick and dreaming that the medicine cured me are still just dreams. A good dream is no different than a bad dream.

“The dreams forgiveness lets the mind perceive do not induce another form of sleep, so that the dreamer dreams another dream. His happy dreams are heralds of the dawn of truth upon the mind. They lead from sleep to gentle waking, so that dreams are gone. And thus they cure for all eternity.”

Now here is a dream that is different. Forgiveness does not lead to more ego dreams. The happy world of forgiveness heralds the dawn of truth upon the mind and true waking begins to occur. Then all dreams are gone and there is no more sickness. Of course, at that level, there is no body to be sick because there is no dreaming at all.

“Atonement does not heal the sick, for that is not a cure. It takes away the guilt that makes the sickness possible. And that is cure indeed. For sickness now is gone, with nothing left to which it can return.”

There is the possibility of sickness as long as there is a body because the body itself is the symbol of our guilt. It represents the belief we are separate from each other and from God. But as more and more guilt is released, it seems there is less sickness. At least, that has been my experience.

I notice I get sick way less often, and that when I do get sick, I suffer less. While this is nice, it is not the same as being cured and is not my goal. I see sickness as just another opportunity to look at the guilt in my mind and let it go. I discover that it is possible to know that sickness is not real and watch it disappear along with the guilt.

“There is no place where holiness is not, and nowhere sin and sickness can abide. This is the thought that cures.”

In truth, we are in God and part of God and, therefore, there is no place in us for sin and sickness. It only appears there could be because we dream we are someplace else, someplace that could be outside God and therefore a place that could be sinful and thus sick. It is only a dream, an illusion, a bit of imaginative thought that makes the appearance of sickness. Knowing this to be true is healing.

“We will try today to find the source of healing, which is in our minds because our Father placed it there for us.”

Once again, I am given the opportunity to sit in stillness and allow my mind to be healed. There is the Voice for God in my mind just beneath the ego thoughts that are “my ticket to this virtual reality show” (from Gina Lake) that I call my life. But as I let those thoughts slide by without giving them my attention, I leave the world behind long enough for some healing to take place. Then the next time I go into meditation, there is less temptation to follow those thoughts and even more healing occurs.

“We hear Him now. We come to Him today. With nothing in our hands to which we cling, with lifted hearts and listening minds we pray:

“Only salvation can be said to cure.

Speak to us, Father, that we may be healed.”

This is the only way we are going to be cured of our only ill, the belief in guilt. We must go to God with no other desire than to know the truth and to return our minds to Him.

Regina’s Tip
The goal is not to change the dream. The goal is to awaken from it.

It is okay to seek resolution to problems that come up in the dream. If there is a headache, it is okay to take aspirin. If a job ends, it is ok to look for another job. However, keep in mind that this is all dream stuff. Let the dream be the dream, AND remain clear on the goal. It is possible to do both by keeping the mind focused in the direction of truth. This is often referred to as “being in the world but not of it.”

Remember that the only resolution that can be a cure (a successful and permanent remedy from suffering) is awakening to truth. Everything else is temporary relief from suffering at best. Temporary relief is acceptable and can be helpful, but it isn’t the goal.

2nd Day for Lesson 140
I do know that there is only one cure and that is to awaken from the dream of separation. I know that everything I do with magical means to end my suffering is useless toward awakening, but I also know that there is no benefit in suffering if I cannot yet accept healing. I still feel uneasy about using magical means and I wonder if that is because I am listening to ego tell me how guilty I am or if it is because I could be practicing accepting healing instead.

There are two ways to look at this; that it doesn’t matter what we do as long as we understand that magic is magic and not really a cure, or that we can heal the body by allowing our true Self to work in it. Both seem equally true to me. There is ample proof that healing the body can be accomplished as the mind is healed. I know that guilt for any reason is not the answer, and so I am not guilty for my choices. I am going to surrender this whole issue to the Holy Spirit and let Him speak to me about it.

What I got is that I should not become obsessed with these body things I have been concerned with. It is not that I am to ignore the body, but just not get wrapped up in it. Take it a moment at a time allowing myself to be led, and absolutely not to worry about any of it or be concerned at all. Ok. I can do that.

Manual for Teachers
I cannot say how I will feel when I have completely given up all value of the world, but as I have some experience with this, I can extrapolate from that success and say that I believe what Jesus says here. I am not angry that we made the world or that we chose to have this experience. I don’t even regret it. I am ready to be through with it, but I don’t condemn it or any of those who are still interested in it.

But nor do I regret any part of it that I have given up already. I used to take great pleasure in winning. I loved competitive games. I enjoyed being better than others at my job. My last job was in sales, which is very competitive. It was a perfect job for someone like I was, and it was a perfect job to discover that winning didn’t have any real value and that it didn’t really make me happy. I don’t miss competing or winning at all.

When I began to do my job solely with a focus on being helpful, I enjoyed it more and so much of the stress fell away. It did not happen all at once and I had to work at it, but it was worth it. Work helped me to let go of other things I used to value, like projecting guilt. I used to think that finding someone to be guilty instead of me was quite literally my salvation. Now, I just notice the old habit trying to reestablish itself and I choose again. There is no value in guilt. Taking responsibility and making different choices is far better.

I can enjoy standing on the shore of a beach and listening to the surf. I can enjoy good music that stirs my soul. I can enjoy trees and the green of the grass and the vibrant colors of my zinnias, and at the same time, I can enjoy the stark beauty of the desert earth colors. I like movies and vacations and family gatherings and all manner of beauty in the world. And yet, I would not hold onto any of it. I suspect that there is something far more beautiful than what my eyes show me and that it is just waiting to be known.

Special relationships are maybe the most convincing prize the ego offers, and it is the one that still compels my attention. It is one of the few things that can draw me into the ego story so deeply that I still have trouble resisting. But even that fails to keep my attention completely, and, always, eventually, I turn from this false happiness. I remember that I can have a holy relationship instead and that it is the only kind of relationship I want. The relinquishing of the special relationship is not the sacrifice the ego claims it to be.

Text
“The Holy Spirit does not want you to understand conflict; He wants you to realize that, because conflict is meaningless, it is not understandable.”

The Holy Spirit does not fight the ego or try to understand it. The Holy Spirit simply disregards it because it does not exist. Conflict is of the ego so conflict is meaningless and so not understandable. Ultimately, this is my goal as well. I began by learning about the ego so I could recognize it. I was not trying to understand it or destroy it, I just wanted to know the difference between ego’s voice and the Voice for God.

I then began to loosen my hold on these untrue thoughts and allow my mind to be corrected. I am still not at war with the ego, but I see that it is not me and I am practicing recognizing the tendency to identify with it so I can stop doing that. My goal is to disregard it completely because no part of my mind believes in it or has interest in it. As I release the belief in the ego, I release any interest in conflict.

© 2019, 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 1 of 2 pages  1 2 > 

<< 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.