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Study of the Text 11-27-12

11-27-12
3 When the Atonement has been completed, all talents will be shared by all the Sons of God. God is not partial. All His children have His total Love, and all His gifts are freely given to everyone alike. “Except ye become as little children” means that unless you fully recognize your complete dependence on God, you cannot know the real power of the Son in his true relationship with the Father. The specialness of God’s Sons does not stem from exclusion but from inclusion. All my brothers are special. If they believe they are deprived of anything, their perception becomes distorted. When this occurs the whole family of God, or the Sonship, is impaired in its relationships.

Two things stand out for me in this paragraph. The first is that I am special because I am one with my brothers who are special. I lack nothing. I have every gift of God there is to have. Sometimes I know this is true. I know that the world I experience is not what I am. I know that I am part of God and in God and want for nothing. When it seems I do not, that is because I have become identified with Myron, that is, with the idea of a separated self.

As a separated self, I seem to be different from my brothers, each of us having certain gifts, and of course, someone else seems to have the gift I really want and really long for. This is an attack, an attack on myself because now I feel less than, and so no longer special in my wholeness. It is an attack on my brother because I envy him and want what I think belongs to him. I want what he has so that I can feel special in my separation.

I have always longed to express myself creatively. I long to sing but it seems my part is to listen and appreciate. I long to paint, but I can only enjoy what others paint. Why can I not be given an incredible book like A Course in Miracles, or The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament? I want to wake up and live the rest of this life from that perspective the way others are doing. I want to have what Byron Katie has, and what Jan Frazier has. The list of special talents and gifts that I feel deprived of is too long to list here

Jesus is telling me that I am deprived of nothing and when I think I am, my perception becomes distorted, and I can see that it does. When I think I lack something someone else has that thought is a distortion and leads to further distortion such as feeling unloved and uncared for. Why do I not have what they have, is the underlying question and the answer seems to be that I must not be worthy.

The world as I see it now, from the point of view of Myron, is splintered. Some have and some have not, but this is not the truth. The world is not the truth. I can be Myron for awhile, and probably I have tried on many roles, but they are temporary parts to be played and lain aside. In truth, I am One with all my brothers, and there is nothing we do not share.

The second thing that stands out is the idea of being as a child, being completely dependent on God. I practice this as I surrender my day-to-day decisions, as I lay aside my plans and ask, “What would You have me do, now?” I practice becoming empty of self so that I can be lived. I laugh at myself when I say this because I am being lived whether I surrender to it or not. It is a distortion of perception to think Myron is in control and making things happen.

I want to consciously let go of the idea that I am in control. I want to relax into God and be happy to be led. I want to let go of all resistance to the idea that to surrender means to lose. This morning before I began my study, I asked Spirit to take me to God, as I have been doing for several days now. My mind wandered all over the place and finally I let go of trying.

Holy Spirit helped me to see that this is resistance, this mind wandering. The distractions of the mind are simply a defense against God, designed to keep me separate and in the distorted perception of ego, safe from God. Ego does not want to give up its “independence” from God. As if it could ever be independent of God! What would I lose if I surrendered to my Truth? Unhappiness? Loss? Suffering and death? I ask myself why I struggle so hard to maintain my pretense of being separate from my God.

What would I gain if I let go of my fierce grip on this pretense? Everything.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 11-26-12

11-26-12
2 The basic decision of the miracle-minded is not to wait on time any longer than is necessary. Time can waste as well as be wasted. The miracle worker, therefore, accepts the time-control factor gladly. He recognizes that every collapse of time brings everyone closer to the ultimate release from time, in which the Son and Father are one. Equality does not imply equality now. When everyone recognizes that he has everything, individual contributions to the Sonship will no longer be necessary.

This morning I read something Regina Dawn Akers wrote about not wasting time. This is what she said.

It seems I remember something from the UrText of A Course in Miracles where Jesus sent Helen to a specific store to find and buy a specific coat. This directed shopping saved time, so she could spend more time with Jesus scribing the Course and less time going from store to store looking for a coat.

I find the same guidance in my life. When I am surrendered and asking, “What am I to do now,” I am led efficiently from one thing to the other. When I am not surrendered, my mind comes up with ideas about what to do that wastes time.

With surrender, I accomplish more of what needs to be done and I have more time for focused spiritual contemplation and meditation. Without surrender, more time is wasted in activities that accomplish nothing meaningful (e.g., too much time on Facebook looking at nothing.)

It seems the intuition that answers us when we ask, “What am I to do now?” guides for our best interest and ultimate satisfaction. By listening to it, time is used wisely. We will notice the effects of this wise use of time; there’s a feeling of being in the flow, in harmony with all things.

That was a helpful reminder from Regina. I often ask for guidance and then sometimes I fall out of the habit and try to make all my own decisions. There is a huge difference in the flow of my life. It is always a waste of time when I do this. I did this when I spent nearly all of Friday shopping and got almost nothing done except to wear myself out. I didn’t ask for guidance at all, just decided it was the thing to do. I was wrong. It seems that every so often I have to try life on my own just to be sure it really is better if I make no plans and no decisions on my own.

Another way I use this idea of time control is that I use every situation as an opportunity to heal the mind. For instance, like many people I spent the last several days eating Thanksgiving deserts. I don’t generally eat many sweets, and when I do eat them I eat without guilt and with enjoyment. However, when I eat like I did this weekend, in the past I have had a hard time stopping. Its like when I get started eating sweets I can’t stop.

What I normally do is tough it through by spending a few days backing slowly off the sweets, eating fewer every day, to finally stop altogether. This works for me, but doing this is teaching myself something that is not true. I spend those two or three days feeling anxious and out of control. I doubt myself and feel victimized by my bad habit.

I become afraid that this time I will not be able to stop eating sweets, as if the craving for sweets has nothing to do with me and it just falls from the sky and attacks me. When I do this I am teaching myself that I am a body and the body is the decision maker. This is not a lesson I want to teach myself or anyone else.

What I do now is that I accept responsibility for my eating habits, and for the strong craving for sweets. I did this and I can undo it. I enjoyed the banana pudding and as much of the fudge as I wanted, then I told the Holy Spirit that I wanted to go back to eating normally. I enjoy not feeling attached to food and not feeling controlled by appetite. I asked for His help. When I woke up the next morning I had no desire for deserts or heavy meals. The leftovers are sitting in the fridge and I don’t feel to eat them.

Eating or not eating is not the issue, though I am happy with the way things are now. The issue is that I am using this situation to be taught the truth. I am using it to help the Sonship wake up to It’s Reality. This is a good use of time. It’s the only good use of time that I can see, and it is very satisfying to me to use time in this way. Definitely more satisfying than a piece of fudge. No, really. ~smile~

We do have work to do here. There is effort that is required. I know the text tells us that we need do nothing, but Jesus is talking about healing of the mind when he says this. We need do nothing to accomplish healing except to want the healing. However, it sometimes takes great effort to get to a place where we want the healing more than we want the problem.

In this way we are not all equal at this time. Some of us have done more work or have more quickly accepted the truth. I am grateful to those who have stepped forward and done what needed to be done. They do not heal for themselves alone, but for all of us. Because of what they have done, we are all much closer to awakening, and the work I must do is much easier now. The mind is not as deeply asleep now so it is not as hard for me to change my mind. Also, I look at those who walk ahead of me and I see that they did it so I feel encouraged that I can do so as well.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 11-24-12

11-24-12
V. Wholeness and Spirit

1 The miracle is much like the body in that both are learning aids for facilitating a state in which they become unnecessary. When spirit’s original state of direct communication is reached, neither the body nor the miracle serves any purpose. While you believe you are in a body, however, you can choose between loveless and miraculous channels of expression. You can make an empty shell, but you cannot express nothing at all. You can wait, delay, paralyze yourself, or reduce your creativity almost to nothing. But you cannot abolish it. You can destroy your medium of communication, but not your potential. You did not create yourself.

After reading this paragraph I can only say, “Thank you, God, for the nature of my creation.” I am so grateful that I can refuse to use my creativity, but I cannot destroy it. I can be in a state of denial, but denial does not change me. Since I did not create myself, I cannot make myself different.  I can only pretend to be different.

The body is the symbol of the change I am pretending to be. Used by the Holy Spirit, it becomes the learning aid that helps me return my mind to Reality. I watch my mind for thoughts that seem unlike Reality. I notice my body’s changes and see that it cannot be part of Reality, because Reality does not change.

I use the body to communicate or to block communication and I see something else that needs healing. I notice that my mind is obsessed with the body and its needs as if I am this thing, and so I see another lesson to be learned. The body is quite the classroom. When the lessons have all been learned, when the body is seen for what it is and when I have learned to use it only for communication, I will no longer need it, nor want it.

The miracle is the way I reach this new understanding and eventually leave behind the world I see. As I notice these things, as I notice the use to which I put the body and ask that my mind be corrected of these mistaken beliefs, the miracle heals the mind.  The healed mind no longer imagines lack of love and so no longer projects its distorted vision onto the world.

As ever greater numbers of us are healed and the miracle transforms the world it will become what it was meant to be, and for awhile we will enjoy our little experiment as a happy dream. How lovely the world will seem without pain and suffering, greed and selfishness, and all the effects of guilt and fear that do not in reality exist, but that we continue to animate through our belief that we need them.

I know that this is going to happen because it is beginning to happen now. I see it in my own life and in the lives of others. I had an example of that this morning. I was more active yesterday than usual and when I woke up instead of feeling revived and refreshed, I felt draggy and achy. But I couldn’t sustain that illusion because I have spent a lot of time remembering that the body is not sick, or tired. What happens is that the mind creates these states and then projects them onto the body.

I have asked for healing of the mind often enough that I can no longer stay in pain like I used to. I didn’t think about it a lot. I just noticed the discomfort and had the thought that pain is not real. Then I went about my business and at some point realized that all the false symptoms were gone. They cannot exist without my active participation.

As I write this I notice a pain in my neck that has been very persistent. I don’t seem willing to let it go, and I don’t allow the reason for this reluctance to rise to the surface of my mind. But I do trust. I trust that everything that appears in my life is there to support my awakening and when I have used it for that purpose it will leave. I trust myself to be awakened enough to desire healing and to allow the miracle to manifest in perfect timing.

It has been my experience so far that as my mind heals, my world changes. Sometimes it is the way I see the world, and sometimes it appears as an actual change, such as it did with some of the physical healings I have experienced. Another way I see the effects of a healed mind is the ease in which I live. I need something and there it is.

Sometimes I did not consciously know I needed it until it showed up. I need help and someone volunteers. I need a solution to a problem and am inspired with the answer. A long time grievance is simply dropped as if magically removed from my mind, and of course, it is not magic, but it’s opposite; it is a miracle.

I am not in conscious control of the miracle. I do my part in being vigilant for the need for healing and accepting the change of mind it brings. I observe with wonder and delight as the miracle makes itself known, but I don’t try to direct it. When that desire enters my mind I know it is the ego trying to gain control it thinks it lost. It never had control so there is nothing to be gained.

Just as the body is here for as long as needed, the miracle, too, is only temporary. When I fully accept my true Self, I will have no need for miracles. For now, however, I am so grateful for them.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 11-23-12

11-22-12
4 The emptiness engendered by fear must be replaced by forgiveness. That is what the Bible means by “There is no death,” and why I could demonstrate that death does not exist. I came to fulfill the law by reinterpreting it. The law itself, if properly understood, offers only protection. It is those who have not yet changed their minds who brought the “hell-fire” concept into it. I assure you that I will witness for anyone who lets me, and to whatever extent he permits it. Your witnessing demonstrates your belief, and thus strengthens it. Those who witness for me are expressing, through their miracles, that they have abandoned the belief in deprivation in favor of the abundance they have learned belongs to them.

Its strange to think of fear as emptiness, as nothing. Fear seems so big and so overwhelming. When I was afraid for my son, fear felt so big that I couldn’t, for awhile, feel anything else. It was like it filled me up and nothing else could fit. When I think of being on a mountain, of driving around it and not being able to see what is coming toward me from the other side, or especially to think of driving and coming to a switchback and having that sensation of driving right off into air before the sharp turn that allows me to hug the mountain again, well the fear is huge.

Just writing about it I feel my stomach tighten and I want to cry. This fear is even worse because it doesn’t make sense and I don’t know what to do with it, how to let it go. It makes it seem like fear is bigger than God because so far I have not been able to give it over to Spirit and let it be healed. And here is Jesus saying that fear is nothing. Where I think that monstrous fear sits in the dark place in my mind, there is only… emptiness? How strange.

I have not yet been able to replace that particular fear with forgiveness. Maybe I will not in this lifetime do that, or maybe I will do it in a few minutes. I trust that this process is unfolding perfectly. At some point I will forgive the fear of heights, which evidently is really the fear of death. Jesus showed (witnessed to me) that death is not real. He overcame death for himself and for me. Perhaps all fear is the fear of death in some way. Speaking of fear, Jesus also reassures us that the scary parts of religion are only the result of interpretations by frightened people. When I first read that it was a great relief.

Jesus uses the language of Christianity in the Course, sometimes redefining certain terms as he did with the word “forgiveness.” Since I was not raised Protestant, at first I was confused by the word “witness” as used here. I looked it up in the dictionary and it said that that to witness is to testify to Christian beliefs, and this is done publicly. I read some passages from the Bible, which didn’t enlighten me especially. But thinking about what I read there and how my protestant friends typically use the word witness, I gather that to witness is to say aloud how God has worked in your life for the purpose of spreading the word.

I was thinking how this applies to witnessing through miracles. As I perform miracles I show others that healing the mind works and this encourages and motivates them to do the work for themselves. When I read the articles that Nouk Sanchez wrote (http://undoing-the-ego.org/noukblog/?p=212) in which she described two mind healing miracles that manifested in form as well, I was inspired. It helped me realize that I was on the right path and encouraged me to continue my own work. Both miracles perfectly expressed that she chose to abandon the belief in deprivation in favor of the abundance she has learned belong to her.

I can tell you that my life has changed because of my belief in Jesus, but if I show you that I am consistently happier and more peaceful, if you see my life change for the better, my witnessing will be more powerful. I used to be depressed all the time. I am never depressed now. I used to get angry a lot. I get angry very seldom now and when I do it passes quickly.

I used to blame others and outside circumstances for what happened to me and I felt sorry for myself a lot. I rarely feel or act like a victim now and readily accept responsibility for everything in my world. When someone notices those changes in me (or even if they don’t know how different this is) and they ask me how it happens, I gladly add words to my witnessing, and of course, I witness through my writing and teaching.

Jesus says that he will witness for anyone who lets him, and to whatever extent he permits it. He whispers in my heart the truth when I ask for it. A few days ago I started asking Spirit to take me to God, and then spending a few moments in that space. I did not have any expectations as to what that might look like to me, but just did it in trust. Yesterday on Thanksgiving morning, when I asked, something happened on a conscious level.

I have a hard time finding words to match the experience, and I don’t want to explain it into something it was not. That’s so easy to do when I use the thinking mind. But very briefly, I seemed to have a fleeting thought of wondering what God is. I felt enormous power and maybe flinched from it. Then felt love; love like a mighty river flowing endlessly, a constant current of love. Harmless. I cried uncontrollably for a few minutes.

Afterwards I wondered at my reaction, and when I would think of God as benign, nonthreatening, and harmless, I would start crying again. Thinking about it, I believe that Spirit witnessed to me. It was done in feelings rather than words, and the feelings were evoked through me. It was as if Jesus were saying, “Before I can bring you to God, I must show you that you are afraid of Him, and allow you to let go of that fear. We can’t do it all at once, but we can touch on it a little this morning.” So maybe this is the kind of thing that Jesus means when he says he witnesses to us as much as we allow.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 11-21-12

11-21-12
3 Darkness is lack of light as sin is lack of love. It has no unique properties of its own. It is an example of the “scarcity” belief, from which only error can proceed. Truth is always abundant. Those who perceive and acknowledge that they have everything have no needs of any kind. The purpose of the Atonement is to restore everything to you; or rather, to restore it to your awareness. You were given everything when you were created, just as everyone was.

OK, let me start at the end on this one. I was given everything. I was given everything when I was created. You were, too. Everyone was. So where did it go? Where did my sense of abundance go? Where did my sense of being loved, of being loving, of being lovable go? Where did my confidence, my certainty, go? Jesus says that it didn’t go anywhere, and that I still have it all, the peace, the love, the joy. He says that the purpose of the Atonement is to bring it all back into my awareness.

Jesus is telling me that if I acknowledge that I have everything I will have no needs of any kind and that makes perfect sense. If I really do have everything and the only thing keeping me from enjoying this wealth is my refusal to acknowledge it, then the solution to my poverty is simple. I am reminded of something I heard a long time ago and common sense of it caused it to stick.

Someone said that if I have a bank account with an endless supply of money, money that is replenished each time I use any of it, then that would be wonderful. Right? But what if I am unaware of the bank account? Technically, I am rich, but what good does it do me? No matter how rich I am, in order to benefit from my wealth I must acknowledge it.
Now that I have the solution to my sense of lack, all I need to do is use it. Lack is not an evil force keeping me from my good. It is easily overcome. As Jesus says at the beginning of this paragraph, darkness is just the lack of light. So let’s shine some light on this situation. Now that I have been assured that I already have what I want, each time I notice a thought of lack I know what to do. I deny the lack and thus shine away some darkness. I don’t need to look for abundance, it is already there waiting for me to see it. I uncover it through my willingness to see.

I keep doing this every time I see an opportunity. If I feel lonely and unloved, I remember that I have everything I need. I become willing to let go of the belief I could be unloved or even lonely. At first I don’t know what that is supposed to accomplish or how, but I am willing to suspend my doubt and accept Jesus at his word. I am willing to allow my mind to be healed and to allow the effects to unfold in my life in unexpected ways.

I can remember a few years ago when I began this process. I had the thought that I would like to have friends. I really didn’t have any. The Course was helping me come out from under the pall of years of depression. If anyone had liked me I would not have recognized it and what good is a friend if you don’t know you have one? I was so filled with unquestioned guilt that I didn’t believe I deserved love so I didn’t let myself feel it. When anyone offered me friendship or love I couldn’t believe in it and turned away from it.

As I began the process of watching my thoughts and giving what willingness I had to being corrected, the light of truth shown just enough in my mind to allow me to ask for friendship, or at least to consider it was possible to be loved. Thus my thought (and all thoughts are prayers) that I would like to have friends. First I felt the love within myself. I began to accept it for my self. I started liking myself more and I began to open to the light of love.

Eventually, as I began to acknowledge that I have love to give, I began to feel the desire to share that love. My life began to fill with people who wanted and needed what I had to give. It took longer for my sense of worth to become strong enough to allow myself to acknowledge that love bounces both ways. But eventually, I began to recognize friendship when it occurred.

Now I understand. Love is what I am. I am an ocean of love. The love flows from me and then returns in great waves which break over me covering me in love. Then it flows out again, only to return. Before I was like a lonely creature standing on the shore dripping wet, wishing for water. When it would break over me again, I would protect myself from its force and garb myself to prevent its touching me. I would wish for love but then do everything I could think of to protect myself from its touch. And wonder why I was lonely and unloved.

The simplicity of it just astounds me. I am love. I can’t be without love. I can only pretend I could lack love, and defend against it to safeguard my pretense. Love will take whatever form I feel I need. More money. More health. More peace. More joy. It is all mine because those are just different experiences of love and I am love. As I open up and more light shines away the darkness I see so clearly that I have been hiding my good from myself.

I thought I didn’t deserve it. I thought I could lose what I got, so it would be less painful to not have at all than to suffer the pain of loss. I thought I was a sinner and needed to be punished. I thought it was important to keep my holiness a secret or God would find me. Darkness prevailed, but only at my authorization. As soon as I let those thoughts be healed, light flooded my mind and I saw the truth. I am love. I am abundance of every kind. Not only do I not lack, I cannot lack.

I am learning to disbelieve all proof to the contrary, to question it and to allow my mind to be healed. As my mind is healed, the thoughts change, and the effects of my thinking naturally change as well. It looks like where there was lack there is now abundance, but that is an illusion. The truth is that where there was the belief in darkness, the belief in lack, there is now light to see that love was always there because there is nothing else.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 11-20-12

11-20-12
2 Holiness can never be really hidden in darkness, but you can deceive yourself about it. This deception makes you fearful because you realize in your heart it is a deception, and you exert enormous efforts to establish its reality. The miracle sets reality where it belongs. Reality belongs only to spirit, and the miracle acknowledges only truth. It thus dispels illusions about yourself, and puts you in communion with yourself and God. The miracle joins in the Atonement by placing the mind in the service of the Holy Spirit. This establishes the proper function of the mind and corrects its errors, which are merely lacks of love. Your mind can be possessed by illusions, but spirit is eternally free. If a mind perceives without love, it perceives an empty shell and is unaware of the spirit within. But the Atonement restores spirit to its proper place. The mind that serves spirit is invulnerable.

2 Holiness can never be really hidden in darkness, but you can deceive yourself about it. This deception makes you fearful because you realize in your heart it is a deception, and you exert enormous efforts to establish its reality. Everyone carries a secret anxiety whether they realize it or not. It has been a part of their lives for so long that they don’t notice it on a conscious level, but it is there. It is a deeply unconscious guilt that while well hidden, nevertheless informs our daily thoughts and actions.

This unconscious guilt is the cause of the world we see. It is projected outward and appears as the circumstances in our daily life. We then look at those circumstances and think, “Yes, that’s why I feel anxious,” or “Yes, that’s why I feel guilty.” We would rather be guilty of unkind acts and betrayals, even adultery, murder, or theft, than to uncover the true cause of the fear.

We think we are hiding from God, and yet we cannot even hide from ourselves. Our holiness, no matter how we cover it with acts of brutality, war and such, or even the everyday business of distractions, making a living, making love, making children; our holiness seeps out and this scares us. Even when it doesn’t, we know in our deepest heart what we are, and we are afraid it will betray us to God. Holy Spirit, thank you for helping us remember the truth that God loves us and harbors no resentments. Thank you for reminding us that we have nothing to fear from God.

The true purpose of the miracle is to bring us to truth. It is to establish our reality once more, to bring us out of the dark and into light. We are afraid we must atone for our sins, but Jesus is giving a new definition to Atonement. Atonement is the gentle undoing of this strange and cruel choice we have made.

I picture it like this. I am a child hiding in a dark closet. I am surrounded by monsters and there are terrible things happening all around me. Better to stay here because if I come out the consequences will be even more dire. I have been here in this dark place for so long that I have gotten used to the monsters and the fear. I have learned to deal with it. I have spent many lifetimes here and now the only thing I fear worse than the monsters is leaving the dark. I don’t remember why, but I do remember it is important to stay here.

But I grow weary of the pain and suffering and I have the occasional dream of something else, something light and happy. I begin to pay attention to that thought a bit more. This thought seems to be a whispering Voice in my heart, gently coaxing me out of hiding. We have been in this conversation, this negotiation, for awhile now. It works like this.

The Voice reminds me of another life, a life of peace and freedom. I tell Him why I don’t want to take a chance on coming out of hiding. I bring Him one scary thought at a time, laying each one down before Him. He shines a light on the thought and I see it differently. It is not really a monstrous thought, but just a shadow that fades in the light. I see behind the shadow a true thought and my heart lightens a bit. I am less afraid.

This goes on for a seemingly long time, with many thoughts being brought forward, more thoughts and more quickly now because I am gaining clarity with each exchange. Each time He says, “See, you but do this to yourself. There is no real threat in this.” This is a miracle! Each healed thought is a miracle. As my thoughts are corrected, the miracle takes form and I see the connection.

The Voice is right. The monsters are not real. The monstrous circumstances are not real. The world I see is not real. I but did this to myself, after all. As I allow my mind to be corrected, all the monsters disappear. The frightening circumstances, the suffering and the pain were all simply effects of the untrue thoughts I was holding in my mind. They were the guilty thoughts taking form and now that the thoughts are changing, so is the form they take.

I see now that I am not that frightened child hiding in the dark that I once thought I was. I am not that at all. I am spirit. I am the maker of the child and the maker of the dark places, and yes, even the maker of the monsters, the unpleasant circumstances and the pleasant distractions as well. I am the maker of it all and as I allow my mind to be healed, I become the maker of happier stuff.

When the healing is complete, and when I have finally and fully accepted the Voice and It’s reassurances, I will come all the way out of the darkness and stand before my Creator. That is the final step for me to take. Then, when it will no longer frighten me, He will lift me up. He will enfold me with His Love and His care.

He will bring me into His Self and I will laugh as I realize I have been there all along. I see this. I see it just over there. Holy Spirit, please free my mind of any remaining impediments to this happy ending. I gladly look at any of the mistaken and frightening thoughts still in the mind. I gladly give them to You. I want to be free again. I am ready to lift the veil and pass through to You. Spirit, please take me to God.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 11-19-12

11-19-12
IV. The Escape from Darkness
1 The escape from darkness involves two stages: First, the recognition that darkness cannot hide. This step usually entails fear. Second, the recognition that there is nothing you want to hide even if you could. This step brings escape from fear. When you have become willing to hide nothing, you will not only be willing to enter into communion but will also understand peace and joy.

This paragraph is a very simple instruction on how to return to God and my Reality. First, realize that I am not hiding anything with my pretense. My story of Myron and the world I made as a stage for this play is dark, indeed, but not dark enough to hide my intent. There is not enough darkness in existence to hide from Love.

The second step is to realize there is nothing to hide. There is not enough guilt in existence to condemn me. Nothing, not even the belief I turned my back on God, can condemn me. I am innocent and the innocent have nothing to hide.

The third step is to stop trying to hide anything. While I tried to hide my guilt, I must believe in it. When I believe in it I am too afraid to open my eyes to Reality. It is not my guilt that keeps me from awakening, but only my fear of looking at the guilt that imprisons me.

This plays out over and over in the average day. I gossip with a friend and I feel a prickle of anxiety that I ignore. I hide behind: I’m feeling so comfortable being one of the guys. No one is really hurt. Everyone knows this stuff anyway, it’s old news. In my denial of my Self, I deny God and the guilt builds and builds. But because I am pretending not to see the guilt, pretending to hide it from myself, I must pretend I don’t know why I feel anxious.

Someone calls and as I answer the phone I have the thought that I wish no one had called. I wish I could just have this moment of quiet for myself. I feel a prickle of anxiety for this desire that separation be true. I hide it in my righteous indignation. I’ve been working all week, teaching and counseling all weekend. I deserve some quiet time. I assign my discomfort to whoever is on the other end of the phone.  I hide my guilt in that person.

There are so many little bits of guilt and darkness and hiding. Mostly they seem insignificant, too small to take notice. And yet they are the blocks to my awareness of Love’s presence. They are the wall I hide behind, the wall I built to keep God out. How can I return to Love if I deny the wall, deny that I built it, deny that I can take it down. Jesus tells me that I must hide nothing from him. This is my way out.

There is no transgression too big or too small that I will hide from him. Each unkind thought or word is to be uncovered quickly, looked at with the Holy Spirit, and seen as meaningless. Each separation thought, each attack or defense thought, each fear thought, all of them to be looked at, not hidden. It is in looking that I am shown they are nothing, and so I am, after all, innocent and deserving of God’s Love.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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