Together, We Light the Way

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

Study of the Text 1-3-13

1-3-13
III. The Altar of God
1 The Atonement can only be accepted within you by releasing the inner light. Since the separation, defenses have been used almost entirely to defend against the Atonement, and thus maintain the separation. This is generally seen as a need to protect the body. The many body fantasies in which minds engage arise from the distorted belief that the body can be used as a means for attaining “atonement.” Perceiving the body as a temple is only the first step in correcting this distortion, because it alters only part of it. It does recognize that Atonement in physical terms is impossible. The next step, however, is to realize that a temple is not a structure at all. Its true holiness lies at the inner altar around which the structure is built. The emphasis on beautiful structures is a sign of the fear of Atonement, and an unwillingness to reach the altar itself. The real beauty of the temple cannot be seen with the physical eye. Spiritual sight, on the other hand, cannot see the structure at all because it is perfect vision. It can, however, see the altar with perfect clarity.

I cannot pinpoint the exact moment when I heard the call of truth in my mind. It was a quickening, which I probably didn’t recognize at the time. I do, however, remember some dreams I had around that time. One of them was me kneeling before an altar. It seemed I reached the altar by going deep within a place rather than outside it or high on a mountain, for instance. When I awoke, I didn’t remember much about it, or recognize what it meant, but it felt sacred and I knew it was important.

There were a few other things happening at that time. I had a another dream in which I was a beautiful angle flying around a mountain and up to the top. I discovered that my attitudes and thoughts were the cause of some illnesses, like colds and flues. Simply realizing this changed things. I had always gotten colds easily and got the flu at least twice a year like clockwork. After my discovery, that stopped happening. I think I have had a cold only once or twice in all those years since and the flu about the same.

It was also during this time period that I asked for words to write an article for Unity Magazine. I had gained so much insight from that magazine that I had a strong desire to give back. I prayed for words and the ability to write so that I could do this. It came to me almost word for word perfect. This had never happened to me before and I did not even know where the prompt to ask for it came from.

These kinds of things were happening once in awhile, and I did not see the connection at the time. Also, my life seemed to be falling apart and certainly, if I would judge by what was happening in my life, I would not have thought of this as a period of awakening. Now I know to not judge my spiritual progress by what occurs in my life. 

Over a period of time I have seen my life change as my thinking changes, but because awakening can be a messy business, and our vision is so narrow and short sighted, life in the moment is not a good measure of spiritual growth. I also learned that I don’t know what anything means and so it’s not a good idea to judge anyway.

By the time I had found A Course in Miracles and begun to study it, I had forgotten all about that dream until I read this section of the Course. When I read about the altar being within, I felt chills course through my body and I knew that the dream was very significant, indeed. I had evidently begun something that night, a commitment perhaps, or a recognition that it was time to start another part of the journey. Maybe it is simply that the true mind must steal some time from the ego story, just to be in the truth and to worship at the altar.

Jesus seems to be saying that we become confused and worship at the temple rather than the altar within. We can see this as worshiping the body we made rather than the light we are. We become obsessed with keeping the body alive, healthy, beautiful. We become obsessed with the fantasies played out through the body, giving it roles to play, pleasures and pains to feel, and games of give and take, attack and defend. In doing so we neglect the altar, and the light within is buried so deeply that we forget it exists. Except, perhaps, in the occasional dream.

Of course the altar is not something we see with the body’s eyes. Christ Vision sees clearly, though, and in fact, it sees only the altar, completely overlooking the structure. When seen with Vision I don’t even have a body, nor any of the body fantasies that seem so terribly important to me now. Vision sees only the brilliant glow of the perfect Light that I am.

It sees none of my perceived mistakes or my carefully constructed defenses. It doesn’t see how much weight I have gained, nor how much I have lost. It doesn’t see how badly I treat someone or how carefully I love them. It doesn’t see any of the body games, the ones I call good or the ones I call bad, the ones I think of as success or the ones I fear are failures. Vision sees only the unchanging perfection I am.

When I ask for Christ Vision, this is what I am asking for. I am asking to see only the altar. The body’s eyes show me nothing; they only report to me what I want to see. I pray for the healing of my mind so that all I want to see is Love. I pray not to be distracted or tempted by the illusions the body’s eyes show me, so that I offer them to Spirit for purification. I pray for true Vision. I want to never worship at the temple again when I can worship at the altar instead. 

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Study of the Text 1-2-13

1-2-13
7 The Atonement is a total commitment. You may still think this is associated with loss, a mistake all the separated Sons of God make in one way or another. It is hard to believe a defense that cannot attack is the best defense. This is what is meant by “the meek shall inherit the earth.” They will literally take it over because of their strength. A two-way defense is inherently weak precisely because it has two edges, and can be turned against you very unexpectedly. This possibility cannot be controlled except by miracles. The miracle turns the defense of Atonement to your real protection, and as you become more and more secure you assume your natural talent of protecting others, knowing yourself as both a brother and a Son.

Like most people, I used to believe that forgiveness was a sacrifice. I thought it meant giving in and inviting people to walk on me. For instance, if I forgave my husband for some perceived mistake, then he would just do it again because now there would be no consequences to his actions. But really, he did anyway, so holding the grievance never helped me in any way, but since it was the only defense I knew, I couldn’t afford to let it go.

Then I began to learn, as I studied the Course, that my defense (making him guilty and making sure he knew he was guilty) not only didn’t work, but was actually hurting me instead of him. Every time I projected guilt on him I reinforced the idea of guilt in my mind. It is not just a single thing that I want to forgive, a single act by any one person, but the idea of guilt itself. This is the reason the Atonement is a total commitment.  If I hold anyone in guilt, the idea of guilt grows stronger in my mind rather than being healed.

Eventually, what has happened is that by letting go of many little and big grievances over a period of time, I have learned that grievances don’t really come in degrees. Either someone is guilty or they are not. Either guilt is real or it is not. If guilt is real then sometimes I am going to see myself as the guilty party, and even if I project guilt so thoroughly that I always see the other person as guilty, I will be unconsciously aware of guilt in my mind which seems to grow the more I try to get rid of it.

So the cycle goes like this. I feel guilty. Even if I don’t yet have a reason for the guilt, I feel it because the belief in guilt is in my mind. It’s like an ugly stain, or a nasty taste and I want it gone. It’s worse than that because I think that guilt calls for punishment, so I need it gone. I project the guilt outward and people show up, things happen, and I decide that I now see the reason for the guilt. If I now see a mistake made by myself I can figure out how to avoid that mistake in the future and so now I have convinced myself I am safe from guilt.

Or I will actually punish myself for the mistake and so feel safe from further fear of punishment. I get to choose a punishment I can stand and avoid some imagined (or worse, unimaginable) punishment hanging over me, the ultimate being, death, or maybe hell, which punishes me even after death. But this doesn’t work either because now I have taken what I think of as God’s prerogative for myself, so I feel or repress even more guilt.

Another way the cycle continues is if I place the blame on someone else. Now they are guilty. But it’s the same result. Even if I make enough proof to convince the whole world that the guilt is on someone else, I have simply reinforced, for myself and the whole world, the belief that guilt is real and deserves punishment. And no matter how deeply into denial I go, there is a part of my mind that knows what I am doing. It knows where the guilt actually came from, no matter where it seemed to land.

This is a vicious cycle with no way for me to win, and it seemed like there was no way out of it. The Holy Spirit is a very gentle teacher, though, and I moved through this process slowly, a step at a time. I would notice a guilty thought in my mind and ask the Holy Spirit to heal it.

I would notice a grievance and would tell the Holy Spirit I was willing to forgive it. Then if it turned out that I was not quite ready to forgive it, I would be given another chance when I was ready to try again. Eventually, I reached the place where I knew that there was no grievance I wanted to keep, and no reason to keep it. The process moved more quickly now.

The place I am now is that I recognize that the appearance of guilty people in my life, myself or someone else, is just an out-picturing of the guilt in my mind. I forgive the person or situation as symbolic of forgiving the idea of guilt. That is why when my roofing material was stolen, it never occurred to me to make the thieves guilty.

This is what they did because they feel so far from Love that they must steal to get what they think they need. This is a clear cry for love. I intend to give them what they asked for. So now instead of picturing the guilt outside of me to get rid of it, I am picturing it outside of me so I can see it and forgive it.

My mind is not always so clear on this, and when I become confused about it is usually when I have not forgiven myself or when I feel threatened in some way that still holds meaning for me. If my child is threatened or if the relationship with my child is threatened, for instance, I might go to guilt.

This is an attachment I have not released and because I still think I need it, I am afraid of losing it. The ego mind sees this as a good place to put guilt because guilt and fear are so closely associated. But when this happens, I use it as another opportunity for forgiveness, and another opportunity to allow the idea of guilt to be healed.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Study of the Text 1-1-13

12-31-12
6 Evolution is a process in which you seem to proceed from one degree to the next. You correct your previous missteps by stepping forward. This process is actually incomprehensible in temporal terms, because you return as you go forward. The Atonement is the device by which you can free yourself from the past as you go ahead. It undoes your past errors, thus making it unnecessary for you to keep retracing your steps without advancing to your return. In this sense the Atonement saves time, but like the miracle it serves, does not abolish it. As long as there is need for Atonement, there is need for time. But the Atonement as a completed plan has a unique relationship to time. Until the Atonement is complete its various phases will proceed in time, but the whole Atonement stands at time’s end. At that point the bridge of return has been built.

Jeez, my head is spinning as I try to make sense of this. Ok, I see that I return as I go forward. As I do a lesson and something happens, I fully accept it and my mind is healed of a belief. Then I read something from the Course and the same thing happens again. I forgive what I have believed, and something else has been undone. It seems that I am cautiously taking tiny steps and then more confident strides are made. I definitely feel like I am moving forward. But really, I am returning.

The Atonement frees me from my past errors so I don’t have to keep repeating them over and over again. If I were looking down on my past life, I would see many circular paths. These would be the places where I retraced my steps as I kept making the same mistakes over and over again. The form of the error looks different at times, but the error itself is the same mistaken beliefs being projected onto the world.

Later in life, the path has less of these circular places. The remaining circles are smaller, and some are just curves, and lately, the path is much straighter. The difference is that I have learned to forgive and ask for healing. The Atonement principle has gone into affect in my life and the past forgiven is the past undone. No need to return there. This is how I go foreword to return and do it more quickly. This is how time is saved.

The last part is a bit more confusing. The Atonement is part of time for as long as time lasts. It saves time, making chunks of it unnecessary, but it does not abolish time. I understand that part pretty well. It is like miracles, which are useful here where we think we are, but once we return our mind to God and remember who we are, we will have no use for miracles. The same thing is true of the Atonement.

However, the next part is hard for me to understand. The Atonement also stands at the end of time. It is the bridge that we use to return home? Or as the Atonement is being used in time, it is building the bridge and so at the end is the Atonement that is the bridge home. Well, I am just not sure about that.

I don’t know that I need to understand or even that I can understand.  The important thing to me is that the Atonement, which is forgiveness, is the way I am healed and the way time is saved. This undoes the past and takes me forward on the path home at a good clip, with fewer side trips. And as I go forward I return to where I never left. See, nothing to it!

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-31-12

12-31-12
5 The Atonement was built into the space-time belief to set a limit on the need for the belief itself, and ultimately to make learning complete. The Atonement is the final lesson. Learning itself, like the classrooms in which it occurs, is temporary. The ability to learn has no value when change is no longer necessary. The eternally creative have nothing to learn. You can learn to improve your perceptions and can become a better and better learner. This will bring you into closer and closer accord with the Sonship; but the Sonship itself is a perfect creation and perfection is not a matter of degree. Only while there is a belief in differences is learning meaningful.

There is my reality. I am part of the Sonship with no needs of any kind. There is no time and space for me, no need for the Atonement or lessons. I am eternally creative and there is nothing for me to learn. I do not perceive because I know. I am perfect so there is nothing to improve upon.

There is the substitute experience I chose. I see myself as a body living in space and time. I pretend that I cannot remember my reality and don’t know who I am. I have convinced myself that I am separate from God and have scared myself with this thought. I believe I have shattered reality into endless pieces and that I am now one small piece and have nothing to do with all the rest. I believe that I am a fragile body among billions of bodies, but alone and helpless and forever desperately grasping for all that I have lost.

The substitute experience is not real and there is a place in my mind that knows the truth, but I have buried it deeply in shadows of illusion so I can continue this pretense. This is the self that I know best, this little self of limitations, the self I have most closely identified with. But I have begun to shake off the long sleep and have begun to awaken to my true nature.

I do this by questioning the mind’s thoughts and allowing the Voice of God to guide me out of darkness of my mind. A Course in Miracles is the instruction book, its words a pathway out of illusion. The Holy Spirit is my Guide, my Comforter and my Healer. As the light of truth dissolves the darkness of illusions in my mind, I allow that light to shine into my brother’s mind and show them the truth that is there.

It is through the Atonement that I slowly shift my perceptions and bring them more closely into alignment with truth. I made the world as a playground for experience and things got badly out of hand. It became a prison in which the Son of God seems to be trapped by his fear and guilt. The Holy Spirit has another use for it, though. It is now being used as a classroom where my little self can learn lessons and allow the Holy Spirit to correct my thinking and bring my perceptions closer and closer to reality.

What a strange thing this is, the perfect have seemingly made themselves imperfect and then forgotten that they did this to themselves. Now they appear to be frightened and guilty creatures, helpless and unable to remember any other state. But all that is changing. First we pretend we need help, then we pretend to learn lessons so we can finally return to our natural state of wholeness and perfection in which there is nothing to learn.

This year has been a year of extraordinary shifts for me. I was thinking about the passages from A Course in Miracles that have been most influential in those shifts. One would be from Lesson 190 which says: If God is real, there is no pain. If pain is real, there is no God. I decided to believe this and to practice this, and then to experience it. I have watched in amazement as I experienced the physical manifestations of this healing of my mind.

The second passage that has triggered a significant shift in my understanding said: There is nothing outside your mind. T18 VI Beyond the Body. Jesus says the same thing in other ways throughout the Course, but for some reason, when I heard those words I suddenly believed them and everything changed. Now, no matter what I am experiencing, physical or emotional, whether it is a challenge with finances, relationships or the body, I recognize that it is occurring in my mind and nowhere else, and therefore healing must occur in my mind.

How about you? Has there been a particular passage or idea from the Course that has greatly influenced your life this year?

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-28-12

12-28-12
4 The Atonement is the only defense that cannot be used destructively because it is not a device you made. The Atonement principle was in effect long before the Atonement began. The principle was love and the Atonement was an act of love. Acts were not necessary before the separation, because belief in space and time did not exist. It was only after the separation that the Atonement and the conditions necessary for its fulfillment were planned. Then a defense so splendid was needed that it could not be misused, although it could be refused. Refusal could not, however, turn it into a weapon of attack, which is the inherent characteristic of other defenses. The Atonement thus becomes the only defense that is not a two-edged sword. It can only heal.

I had a really hard time understanding Atonement as used in the Course. For years I have kept the Glossary-Index (by Kenneth Wapnick) nearby so I could look it up again and remind myself of its meaning. The meaning would not stick, and now I know that this is because for a long time I was so conflicted about what I wanted that there were some things in the Course I refused to understand.

Jesus explains to us here that Atonement in principle is love, and he says that it was in effect long before the Atonement began. The way he explains it is that the Atonement is an act of love and that before the separation there was no need for acts since space and time did not exist. Perhaps one of the reasons I had trouble with this explanation, even though it is simple, is that I had so little understanding of love. I still believed in the love concept as it exists in the illusion and love from the ego point of view is, at it’s best, selfish unreliable and conditional, and at it’s worst, destructive.

Later Jesus speaks of the Atonement as undoing separation and this was the explanation that stuck with me. Now when I read the word Atonement, I automatically substitute the word undoing. But isn’t that love? Isn’t undoing the ego an act of love? It is Love being itself, transforming what we have done simply through the power of being it’s self. Because I still have so little understanding of love, I still find the word undoing more useful to me, but I must be growing in my understanding because while I can’t seem to find words for it, I do understand more than before.

The next thing he says about Atonement is that it cannot be misused. I cannot use the Atonement to hurt myself or others. I certainly cannot say that about any other defense that I am familiar with. If I defend myself against pain that I perceive as coming from another, my defense will be hurtful in many ways. I will separate myself from that person which is the thing that causes all suffering to begin with. Even if I keep our bodies in contact, in my mind I have separated us into victim and victimizer, so the harm is done.

The most significant experience I have had with love undoing the ego was with my ex-husband. We had a very contentious relationship, especially at the end, and I was very glad to finally walk away from it. I didn’t feel there was anything else I could do at that time to heal the marriage and I was tired of suffering through it. But I was very surprised to realize that I could not leave the relationship. I understand now that all relationships must be healed and the proximity of the two bodies involved is not important.

While I was still in the process of forgiving myself and him and the relationship, it seemed very hard. But doing this work helped me to see that it was only hard when I tried to do it from the ego mind. The ego was only interested in defense through attack. When I finally surrendered the whole thing to Spirit, Love did its thing, and all the animosity fell away like it was nothing. Which is what it was.

When I was still trying to undo with the ego it felt very complicated. Guilt confused everything. I would think of something he did or said and I just wanted to protect myself from ever experiencing that again. Then I would think of something I did or said, and I wanted to be far from him because his presence triggered the memory of my guilty act.

There was so much projection in an attempt to protect myself from my feelings of guilt that I could not begin to unravel it all. I spent a lot of time rejecting the Atonement but my rejection didn’t cause me any harm. Not accepting it prolonged my suffering, but did not hurt either of us. This could not be said of my ego defenses, which clearly caused pain for us both.

It all changed, though, when I realized that all I wanted was peace. I wanted to forgive and I didn’t want anything else. I didn’t want to protect myself or hide myself anymore and so I didn’t need him to be my scapegoat. In that moment of surrender Love cleansed me and purified my mind. I did nothing but say yes. I don’t know if I will ever, while in this illusory state of mind, understand Love, but I have learned to trust it.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-27-12

12-27-12
3 You can defend truth as well as error. The means are easier to understand after the value of the goal is firmly established. It is a question of what it is for. Everyone defends his treasure, and will do so automatically. The real questions are, what do you treasure, and how much do you treasure it? Once you have learned to consider these questions and to bring them into all your actions, you will have little difficulty in clarifying the means. The means are available whenever you ask. You can, however, save time if you do not protract this step unduly. The correct focus will shorten it immeasurably.

In this paragraph I am being encouraged to set my goal and give it my attention. This will save time and that is what I ultimately want to do. In fact, I want to end time. Here is how I am doing this. I began like most people just hoping to find a way to live that was not so painful. A Course in Miracles seemed to help me do that.

I discovered through the Course and Course related books like, Inner Healing by Dan Joseph, simple but effective ways to watch my mind and allow my perception to be corrected and brought nearer the truth. Then in books like NTI and Teachings of the Inner Ramana, I learned more about turning away from the chatter of the ego mind.

While this was happening, I made a significant change. I realized that when Jesus talked about defending my treasure, he meant that I would defend the thoughts that mean the most to me. It seems I would have noticed that a lot sooner since he talks about it right here in Chapter 2, but I guess I was not ready to see this for a while. But once I did see it, and realized I wanted it, I asked myself what exactly it was that I treasure, and if my present treasure was going to get me what I really want.

It was easy to see that I treasured a lot of things that were not bringing me peace. I would defend my right to be happy and that was not working for me. I would defend my right to decide for myself, and to make plans on my own. These treasures were not making me happy either. Sometimes I would defend against the ego, but sometimes I would defend against God. It was like shuffling in place, only once in a while taking a step forward.

I saw that I needed a goal, a purpose, something that would be a guiding force in my life. I began to pay special attention to the lessons about my function. In Lesson 61, Jesus says this. How holy are you who have the power to bring peace to every mind! He then says: You are indeed the light of the world with such a function. What is he talking about, this lofty function? He says that it is my forgiveness that does this. And he encourages me to accept no trivial purpose in its place.

When I watch my mind for ego thoughts and ask that they be corrected and the mind be healed, this is what I am doing. I am remembering that my function is forgiveness. I forgive the beliefs I have held dear but that have hurt me. I did this in the beginning for Myron so that she would have a happier life, but I soon realized that the purpose is to save the world. Each time I do this, I bring peace to every mind.

This is a treasure worth defending. I defend it by choosing forgiveness every chance I get. Because I have decided on my one goal, which is to awaken from the dream of separation, which is the same thing as forgiving the world I made, it has become easy to choose what I would defend. Now I simply notice if the choice I am considering is going to bring me closer to my one goal, or bring me deeper into the illusion.

How to do the forgiveness work is not something I have ever had to figure out. I choose forgiveness as my one function and the means are provided, just as Jesus said they would be. As I make that choice, the Holy Spirit places before me everything I need to make it possible. I find, without effort, every book, every teacher, every inspirational word that will help me. I am directed by the Voice within what to do next, where to go, what to say.

An objection the ego has is that forgiving the world one thought at a time doesn’t feel very lofty. The ego doesn’t feel like a super hero. Saving the world seems to the ego like it ought to have more of a pay-off, that being savior of the world should add to its sense of specialness and this is not what is happening. In fact, it doesn’t feel like much is happening for long stretches of time, and when it does change, the ego notices a loss of specialness instead of an increase in what it most craves.

Later in the Text, Jesus will help us understand that the ego doesn’t know the difference between pain and pleasure. For instance, the ego thinks that specialness is pleasure, when really it is a source of pain. This is why there was confusion for me at first, when I thought nothing much was coming of all this work. But I trusted Jesus and kept at it, remembering my one goal, remembering my one function, and I began to have a peace filled life.

Now I lose my peace at times, but not often and not for long. Now I know that peace is what I want and I know that nothing else comes close, so the means to regain that peace are available to me as soon as I am ready to return to peace. I also understand that I share one mind with all my brothers and so as I choose peace for myself, I am choosing it for us all.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Study of the Text 12-26-12

12-26-12
2 True denial is a powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. This kind of denial is not a concealment but a correction. Your right mind depends on it. Denial of error is a strong defense of truth, but denial of truth results in miscreation, the projections of the ego. In the service of the right mind the denial of error frees the mind, and re-establishes the freedom of the will. When the will is really free it cannot miscreate, because it recognizes only truth.

I used to be in denial about a lot of stuff. When I did something regrettable I would push away the guilt I felt. I would push it out of my conscious awareness, or I would push it on to someone else, making it seem, on the surface, to be her or his fault. I might push it onto the circumstance, convincing myself what I did was unavoidable considering what happened, or maybe considering the way I was raised or things that happened to me in the past.

Of course this doesn’t work. What ever I push away or down is still there. Guilt experienced out of my awareness is still guilt. Guilt given away is still with me because what I give is now more mine than before. In fact it is made worse because now I have guilt for the original idea and guilt for trying to foist it on someone else, and I have reinforced the belief in guilt.

Regardless of how I choose to experience guilt, it is destructive. Judgment, which always comes before guilt is the building block of the illusion and guilt, which always follows judgment, is the glue that holds the illusion in place. The illusion is the place I hide my guilt from God, and returning to God is my goal, so this kind of denial is counterproductive.

There is, however, a useful form of denial. When I notice that I feel guilty or fearful, or angry, jealous, sad, uncertain or doubtful, anything but joyous, I can deny this. I don’t deny I feel it. In fact I allow the feeling, sitting in it for a moment, looking at it with the Holy Spirit. What I deny is that the feeling has a true cause. As I deny the authenticity of the feeling, I ask that my mind be healed of the false belief that triggered this feeling.

I was having some lower back and leg pain yesterday and I noticed that the mind was thinking of reasons for this pain. I overdid shopping, cooking, cleaning and entertaining. I need to turn my mattress. This happens periodically and it means it is time to see a chiropractor. I shouldn’t have lifted that heavy box. These ideas are the wrong use of denial. So then I used denial correctly and denied that any of these things causes physical pain.

These things are just where I project the cause using one or more of them to blame for my pain, and that used to work for me. In this way I was trying to convince myself I was not responsible for what happens to me. I was a victim of circumstances, or people who demanded too much of me. The problem is, this does not really work, but only seems to for awhile.

The truth is in my mind, though I deny it and pretend I don’t know that I but do this to myself. Because it is in my mind, I am left with a sense of anxiety that I don’t consciously identify, but that is discomforting. If I don’t allow myself to become fully aware, I have no way to correct the problem.

Yesterday, what I did instead was to deny the mind’s projections. I know that nothing is outside my mind. This body is not outside my mind. The idea of pain is not outside my mind. The body is an image and the pain is a concept and all of it was of my own design. I am fully responsible for the belief in body and in pain and I accept that responsibility without guilt. Now that I am fully aware, I can ask the Holy Spirit to come into my mind and undo what I have done.

This is as applicable to financial problems, relationship problems or anything else that I have previously used as a way to express the hidden, unconscious guilt that is in my mind. It is so simple that I can hardly believe it has taken this long to accept the truth. Jesus says in simple and easy to understand words that there is nothing outside my mind.

He says that the world I see is an illusion. He says that I but do this to myself. He says that I am not a body. He says that the Holy Spirit in my mind can easily undo all of these beliefs when I am ready, and asks me to allow this healing. He says I can do anything he asks of me. This is all just an error and he says that I can deny any belief that error can hurt me, and this is what I choose to do now.

© 2012, 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 200 of 264 pages ‹ First  < 198 199 200 201 202 >  Last ›

<< 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.

Free Online Resources

Electronic "Magazine"Sign up to receive periodic emails with thoughts to ponder, inspirational articles and the latest news.

Subscribe to daily emails of Workbook Lesson Insights.

ACIM Text Made Simple — answers to hundreds of questions about the Text. Click here.

Daily Inspiration Blog — Thoughts to inspire your day. Click here.

Inspiring journals by Pathways of Light ministers applying the principles of ACIM. Click here.

Miracles News — hundreds of inspiring miracle stories. Click here.
 

We'd Like to Hear from You

Request Free Printed Program & Product Catalog

Or call 1-800-323-7284 (US & Canada) or 386-615-7284.

Click here to email your questions.

United Kingdom: Click here to email your questions about Pathways of Light in the UK or call +44 (0) 207 7262 0209.

Give us your feedback or report site problems.
 

Featured Store Items


Spiritual Counselor Training — based on principles of A Course in Miracles, including ordination. More….

24 ACIM Practitioner courses including 50-page study guide, CD's or MP3s, with facilitator. More….

Listen & Receive 30-Day Home Study Listen & Receive 30-Day Home Study Learn to receive insight for your life in a form that is perfect for you …heal fears, find joy & peace. Learn more.

Hey, Holy Spirit, It's Me Again by Rev. Myron Jones. An indispensible guide for anyone on the path of ACIM with insights on the 1st 90 lessons. More…

True Forgiveness True Forgiveness by Rev. Jennifer McSween. The Proven Path from Pain to Power and personal happiness in 5 Simple Steps. Learn more.

From the Christ Mind From the Christ Mind scribed by Darrell Morley Price. A simple, yet profound message that you can immediately apply to current circumstances. More….

Eternal Life and A Course in Miracles Eternal Life and A Course in Miracles by Jon Mundy, Phd. A Path to Eternity in the Essential Text. Sale, 32% discount. Learn more.

Forgiving KevinForgiving Kevin Audio book by Rev. Larry Glenz. A moving and inspiring true story of a father/son relationship that withstood seven years of addiction, recovery, and relapse. More….

Healing Family RelationshipsHealing Family Relationships Applying the Principles of A Course in Miracles 6 CD audio book by Rev. Myron Jones. Learn how family relationships offer fertile grounds for forgiveness and healing your judgments of the world. More.