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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-15-12

Day 134
2 We have repeatedly said that one who has perfectly accepted the Atonement for himself can heal the world. Indeed, he has already done so. Temptation may recur to others, but never to this One. He has become the risen Son of God. He has overcome death because he has accepted life. He has recognized himself as God created him, and in so doing he has recognized all living things as part of him. There is now no limit on his power, because it is the Power of God. So has his name become the Name of God, for he no longer sees himself as separate from Him.

As I read this paragraph my love and appreciation for Jesus is greater than ever. He perfectly accepted the Atonement and healed the world. That he did this means that I cannot fail in my part because it is done. It seems that I need do nothing but accept my healing. All of the words and practices in the Course are not to change me in any way, but to help me awaken to the realization that there is nothing to change. This has been done. The world is healed.

In accepting the Atonement he has recognized himself as part of God and part of us all. In this recognition of his unity to All That Is, the power of God became available to him. When I choose to accept my part in the Atonement, this same power will be available to me, and until then I can call on his certainty. In calling on the name of Jesus Christ, I am calling on the name of God because there is no separation between them.

There is no separation between me and God either, but I do not accept that as true right now and so my denial of the power of God keeps me from fully accessing it. It’s kind of like having an endlessly replenished bank account that I refuse to believe could be mine. It doesn’t do me any good until I accept it and start writing checks on it.

I’m especially grateful to Jesus this morning because my brother, John, is going for his procedure. He has been in severe pain for about three weeks and has lost nearly 30 pounds. I hear the ego voice in my head saying that there are no simple and harmless outcomes to this test today, that his symptoms prove he is seriously sick and that I can only hope for a lesser of evils. I hear the ego, and acknowledge the temptation to believe it. I ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind and to use this situation to bring me closer to full acceptance of the Atonement.

Once I have asked for healing, I trust that it is done and so do not dwell on the ego thoughts. They are not true and so there is no reason to give them my attention. God is love, not pain and we are all in God so we cannot be in pain. There was a time when I would be afraid of my inability to hold only that thought in my mind, and would feel guilty that I could not. But not so much anymore.

I see those fearful thoughts, but I am not overwhelmed by them because I know that I have only one job; my job is to give my awareness to false beliefs that make themselves known through fearful thoughts, and to give my willingness to see them healed. I am doing this and so I am doing all I can do and all I need do.

I accept responsibility for not just my little corner of the illusion, but for everything. I am responsible for every illness, because every illness is the same illness. It is the effect of the belief in separation. This belief is the cause of all forms of pain and suffering. Owning responsibility is the first step in healing myself and healing the world. But there is a tremendous difference between responsibility and guilt. I held off on owning responsibility for so long because I did not at first understand this difference.

When I was still confused, every time I found a dark thought in my mind I felt guilty for having it and so I stopped looking. It felt like looking for the dark thoughts was the cause of my suffering. But I felt that Inner calling to heal, as have we all who are reading this, and so I kept returning to that which I was told would bring me this healing.

Eventually, I realized that looking with the Holy Spirit and accepting His healing was actually the way I experienced relief. I accepted that I was not guilty for my thoughts, and in fact, it was the belief I was guilty that caused the pain and suffering I felt. My most heart-felt and healing mantra has been that I am innocent. You are innocent. No matter what the appearance there is only innocence.

Recognizing that I could be responsible without being guilty was the understanding that I needed to redouble my efforts. I became fully willing to do the work I needed to do to bring me closer to realizing that I need do nothing. This undoing is still occurring for me, but it is a happier un-job than before.

Instead of feeling guilty and fearful when I see the wrong-minded thoughts, I feel grateful for the awareness because I have experienced the joy of letting them go. I don’t even feel discouraged that I sometimes find the same belief many times before I have fully allowed healing.

It seems there is nothing to judge and that I am always innocent even when it appears I am not. In fact, the Holy Spirit is helping me learn to disregard appearances because they are not truth. As I refuse to give false appearances my belief they are disappearing from my life. Truly, I am responsible for everything in my life, and innocent of all wrong, and my healing mind is giving me a glimpse of a healed world.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-14-12

Day 134
23. DOES JESUS HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE IN HEALING?

1 God’s gifts can rarely be received directly. Even the most advanced of God’s teachers will give way to temptation in this world. Would it be fair if their pupils were denied healing because of this? The Bible says, “Ask in the name of Jesus Christ.” Is this merely an appeal to magic? A name does not heal, nor does an invocation call forth any special power. What does it mean to call on Jesus Christ? What does calling on his name confer? Why is the appeal to him part of healing?

This is very reassuring on more than one level. I am in Houston right now taking my turn being Brinda’s caretaker. I am also helping my brother, John, Brinda’s husband, because he is having a mystery stomach ailment that is very painful. He has to go for a colonoscopy tomorrow and I prepared his treatment last night before bed so it would be ready for him today and I will be driving him for his procedure.

I also helped prepare and give Brinda her medicine this morning. It is a very complicated procedure that took over an hour to complete. There are many, many medicines that require great care in preparing. There are shots to give and lots of other nursing type things that must be done. No one has ever confused me with a nurse before and it was all strange and a little disconcerting for me.

I knew that I was going to be faced with a lot of apparent proof that people are sick, weak and vulnerable. I knew that I was going to have to deal with magical treatments. For this reason I talked to Holy Spirit even before I got here. I asked Him to help me remember the truth. I asked Him to help me as I watch my mind for mistaken beliefs. I also asked him to help me be, not just a caretaker for Brinda’s body, but a healer for her mind.

How lovely this morning to read that it’s understood that my faith is not complete and that it will waver, but that’s ok. My patient is not going to suffer because I temporarily falter. Thank You, God, for that. I am also given the extra help I need. I can call on my “big brother” for help. I can use the name of Jesus Christ when I ask for healing. He is my source of inspiration as he was a master healer, but more than that, he completed the Atonement and so is Healer for the world. He and I share the same mind and so I can call on him for strength and assistance.

Brinda and I began the day with a reading from the Course and praying together. We looked at Lesson 190 which reminds us that we are responsible for our pain and that it is in the remembrance of our true nature that we are able to change our mind and choose joy instead. She and I talked about the difference between responsibility and blame. We are responsible for everything in our life, but there is no blame, no guilt. Nothing we do is a sin, only a mistake, and mistakes are easily corrected with the Holy Spirit’s help.

Another thought that came to me is that I, too, take responsibility for Brinda’s illness. There is in my mind a belief in guilt and sickness that contributes to the hold of guilt on the mind that we all share. I am excited to spend the day in full willingness to heal that belief in our mind. Lesson 190 says that we have the power to dominate all things we see by merely recognizing what we are. I am willing to look past appearances and seek only the truth. I call on the Power of God, that is also my power, to do this. 

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-13-12

Day 133
7 Who can limit the power of God Himself? Who, then, can say which one can be healed of what, and what must remain beyond God’s power to forgive? This is insanity indeed. It is not up to God’s teachers to set limits upon Him, because it is not up to them to judge His Son. And to judge His Son is to limit his Father. Both are equally meaningless. Yet this will not be understood until God’s teacher recognizes that they are the same mistake. Herein does he receive Atonement, for he withdraws his judgment from the Son of God, accepting him as God created him. No longer does he stand apart from God, determining where healing should be given and where it should be withheld. Now can he say with God, “This is my beloved Son, created perfect and forever so.” 

How wonderful to be relieved of the burden of deciding who deserves healing and under what circumstances. How wonderful to know that there are no limits to God’s healing power and that never again do I have to suffer under the delusion that something cannot or should not be healed.

In fact, as my mind accepts that this true I realize that it could be no other way. There is only God and therefore there cannot be anything unlike God. If I think there is, then I must be looking at something that does not exist. I must be looking at illusion. As Lesson 190 says, “If God is real there is no pain. If pain is real, there is no God.”

I found this Lesson very helpful when I was suffering from a lot of pain last year. As I began to realize that this would have to be true (simply because if God is all there is then pain could exist only if God were pain) I learned to use those sentences as my mantra when I imagined I was in pain. I watched the pain I had suffered for years simply dissolve away.

Lesson 190 goes on to say:

It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. As you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness.

I have had to remind myself of this frequently, even though I experienced how true it is. It is still hard for me to hold onto the truth that I am God’s Son and that nothing has dominion over me. I have taught myself littleness for so long that this is my default position, and I still must remind myself that it is not true.

Since I am still in the practice stage of forgiving this form of the illusion, I can still be too easily distracted from the truth by appearances. I am going to Houston to take a turn at being Brinda’s caretaker today. I will be vigilant for thoughts that deny God’s power to forgive anything. I will be vigilant for thoughts that express judgment of any kind. I ask You, Holy Spirit, to help me in my vigilance and to heal all that I find there that denies God.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-12-12

Day 132
6 The offer of Atonement is universal. It is equally applicable to all individuals in all circumstances. And in it is the power to heal all individuals of all forms of sickness. Not to believe this is to be unfair to God, and thus unfaithful to Him. A sick person perceives himself as separate from God. Would you see him as separate from you? It is your task to heal the sense of separation that has made him sick. It is your function to recognize for him that what he believes about himself is not the truth. It is your forgiveness that must show him this. Healing is very simple. Atonement is received and offered. Having been received, it must be accepted. It is in the receiving, then, that healing lies. All else must follow from this single purpose.

This paragraph says that Atonement is universal. It applies in all circumstances and to everyone. It heals all forms of sickness. This is because all sickness is the result of believing in separation. If I did not believe I was separate from God I could not be sick, not sick of mind or body. My sister in law and my brother would be healed of the sickness in their bodies just as Jesus healed physical bodies. Those I have thought of as unenlightened or less enlightened would awaken with me, as I allowed my mind to be healed of the belief they or I could be separated from God. The healed mind does not see any differences between sickness, nor any hierarchy of illusions. Forgiveness applies equally to all of them and is unfailing in its healing power.

How do I offer Atonement (or healing) for someone else who thinks he is separate from God? I know the truth for him, that’s all. I just know that he is not separate from God. I know that absolute certainty. I am not distracted by actions that appear to prove otherwise. I don’t believe anything I see that does not point to the truth.

How is it that my belief in the truth about him could affect him? This seems odd only if I really do believe in separation. If I believe that I am separate from this person then I question how my belief could heal his mind. But if I am a true healer, if I am a teacher of God and my mind is healed, then I know that we are one, and what is true in my mind is true in his mind as well. There is no separation of our minds.

The body and its ailments, the world we see, the little ego mind with its crazy beliefs, are all effects of thoughts in our mind, and ideas leave not their source. As our mind heals, so do the effects of the mind. And since there is only one mind, as mine is healed so is everyone’s. Does it appear that the healing is not accepted? Do not be deceived by appearances.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-11-12

Day 131
5 When a teacher of God fails to heal, it is because he has forgotten Who he is. Another’s sickness thus becomes his own. In allowing this to happen, he has identified with another’s ego, and has thus confused him with a body. In so doing, he has refused to accept the Atonement for himself, and can hardly offer it to his brother in Christ’s Name. He will, in fact, be unable to recognize his brother at all, for his Father did not create bodies, and so he is seeing in his brother only the unreal. Mistakes do not correct mistakes, and distorted perception does not heal. Step back now, teacher of God. You have been wrong. Lead not the way, for you have lost it. Turn quickly to your Teacher, and let yourself be healed.

This paragraph is very clear. If I fail to heal then it is because I have forgotten who I am and so have forgotten who my brother is. I now believe he is this body with all its apparent problems. I have allowed my confusion to blind me to his brilliant perfection, thus I no longer even see him, but see only the reflection of my own mistaken beliefs. In this state I am no longer a healer, but one in need of healing and so must step back and allow the Holy Spirit to heal my mind.

This happened to me first thing this morning. Not that I am so healed that I usually see everyone as the Christ, but I saw my confusion very clearly when I thought of my brother (biological, not spiritual). John is Brinda’s husband. As I’ve mentioned before, Brinda is recovering from transplant surgery. John has been unable to help very much in her care because he became sick. Even though there have been tests run, he doesn’t know what is wrong, only that it has something to do with his stomach and is very painful.

I was thinking about how hard it is going to be to find enough caregivers over the long haul if John has something really bad, like cancer maybe. I thought how devastating it would be for Brinda and of course how hard it would be for John. Suddenly I realized that I was not seeing my brother, but seeing only my fears projected onto him. I was not a healer at all, but one who needed to be healed, and I asked Holy Spirit for help.

I don’t know if this is true for everyone, but I notice that when I am identified with ego the way I was this morning, even as I realize what has happened and decide differently, it takes a few minutes for me to back out of that thinking. I am for a moment or two confused. Confused is such a perfect word for what it feels like. I know I am thinking wrong, and yet, I cannot find the right thoughts. Then I ask the Holy Spirit to correct my thinking and bring me to truth and it is done. That period of confusion used to last a longer time, sometimes for days, but now it passes fairly quickly, but it is still disconcerting while it is happening.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-10-12

Day130
4 Certainly sickness does not appear to be a decision. Nor would anyone actually believe he wants to be sick. Perhaps he can accept the idea in theory, but it is rarely if ever consistently applied to all specific forms of sickness, both in the individual’s perception of himself and of all others as well. Nor is it at this level that the teacher of God calls forth the miracle of healing. He overlooks the mind and body, seeing only the face of Christ shining in front of him, correcting all mistakes and healing all perception. Healing is the result of the recognition, by God’s teacher, of who it is that is in need of healing. This recognition has no special reference. It is true of all things that God created. In it are all illusions healed.

Yesterday I was very clear about healing, or at least I understood it a lot better than I have before. I spent the day in ease, feeling God’s Love. Nothing special happened during the day, but it happened very peacefully, and nothing disturbed that peace for more than a second or two as I remembered I have nothing to fear and nothing to do; I am loved by All That Is. All of the universe exists to support and love me, and this is so different from seeing the universe as an adversary, always a threat in one way or another.

Then when I was getting ready for bed, going through my usual night time ritual, I picked up my pill box to take my night time pills. My hand froze as I thought, “Oh no. Should I stop taking these pills?” Actually, it felt more like, do I have to stop taking them, because in that moment I realized how attached I am to the idea that I am saved, not by my Divine Nature, but by the magic solutions contained in that little plastic box.

I seemed to have finally got the perfect combination of magic spells. Calcium because my bone density goes down to a dangerous level without it. Then I had to add vitamin D because suddenly my body was not absorbing the calcium as it should. A very tiny amount of estrogen to make up for a body that no longer produces it on its own. It’s just a little bit of magic but what would I do without it.

Recently I had added another pill to adjust for a body whose parts are wearing out, then added another pill to counteract the side effects of that pill. And so it goes. But really, I finally got it all just right and now I am thinking about chucking the whole thing, and suddenly I felt threatened, and very confused. Instead of seeing the truth clearly, the illusion seemed real and the truth was a shadow, a thought I could no longer bring into clear focus.

The reason for this sense of confusion and my inability to bring the truth into focus is fear. I am afraid to step out of the boat and walk to Jesus. I have put a lot of energy and effort and faith in the false and now I am reluctant to let all that go. I am afraid to let it go, and fear clouds the mind.

My sister in law has the same problem. She received her lungs and heart transplant and everything is working perfectly, except that she is afraid. She has depended on oxygen for so long that she is afraid to give it up. Even though the doctors assure her that her lungs work very well and she doesn’t need oxygen anymore, she is afraid for them to turn it off.

Even though they show her the test that indicates her oxygen levels are at 98-99%, she is afraid to turn off the oxygen. She believes her fear over the clear proof that everything is alright. I completely understand, because I am doing the same thing.

Yesterday I knew that the body is an image of a thought in my mind. I am not this body, not even in this body; I am thinking this body. It cannot be in pain because it is not real. It is just a neutral image that I project onto. As I believe in the ego’s guilt and fear, I project these things onto the body and they appear as pain, suffering and death. As I remember the truth, I project that onto the body image and it appears as a useful communication device and nothing else. It is my choice and only my choice that creates the illusion of sickness.

As I believe in my guilt and this guilt is projected onto the body as sickness, weakness and in other ways, I then have to make up something within the imagined life of Myron to make the illusion tolerable, and to reinforce the illusion. Otherwise the whole thing goes up in smoke, and the unconscious guilt is too great for me to take that chance, just like Brinda has too much fear to take the chance that everyone is right about her lungs working.

Brinda is learning to overcome her fear by listening to her caretakers as they gently remind her of the truth. They talk her through the fear and encourage her to take deep breathes and calm herself when the panic begin to take over. When the fear is too great, they give her oxygen for short periods of time and then start the process again. Eventually, she will move through her fear and all will be well.

The way I am handling the fear is very similar. I know that this is just fear and not truth, so I ask the Holy Spirit to gently move me through it. I ask Him to heal my thoughts because I know that the body does not cause anything, only my thoughts do this. I hear His Voice as He reminds me that the body cannot exhibit weakness, aging, sickness, or pain unless that is my desire. It has no reality outside my belief in it.

He reminds me that the confusion I feel, and the apparent inability to remember the truth is no more real than is Brinda’s fear that she cannot breathe without the oxygen. It is just a reaction to Love so complete that I am afraid of it. He says that the guilt I am aware of and the unconscious guilt that is beneath it and feeds it, is unfounded and cannot affect the Love that is real. He asks me to relax, breathe, and allow Love to carry me through this.

As I do this my thoughts begin to clear. I have nothing to do but desire the miracle of a healed mind. He will do the rest. Today I will disregard appearances as I trust the Holy Spirit to heal my mind. 

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-9-12

Day 129
3 That forgiveness is healing needs to be understood, if the teacher of God is to make progress. The idea that a body can be sick is a central concept in the ego’s thought system. This thought gives the body autonomy, separates it from the mind, and keeps the idea of attack inviolate. If the body could be sick Atonement would be impossible. A body that can order a mind to do as it sees fit could merely take the place of God and prove salvation is impossible. What, then, is left to heal? The body has become lord of the mind. How could the mind be returned to the Holy Spirit unless the body is killed? And who would want salvation at such a price?

In the first paragraph of this section I worked out that Atonement, forgiveness and healing are all interconnected. The Atonement is the undoing of the ego and forgiveness is how I undo it, and the result is healing. The ego is absolutely against the idea of a healed body because it holds that the body is autonomous, and separate from the mind. If the body is healed through healing the mind, you can see the threat to the ego belief system.

I want to look at the idea of sickness very closely to see how the ego uses sickness as a defense against truth and how a sick body takes the place of God, thus making salvation impossible. I think I understand this, then I get confused when I try to put it into words. The ego is dead set against this idea.

The first thing I notice is that the ego says that sickness is the result of sin. I catch a cold and the ego says that someone gave it to me, so that someone is guilty of making me sick. I need to defend myself against this person by staying away from them. I have noticed myself stepping back from sick people, even being angry in my mind that they don’t stay home instead of spreading their germs everywhere. As I look at this I realize how sickness in the body is a useful tool for the ego to create division, to increase the belief in separation, to reinforce fear, guilt, blame and shame.

When I believe that a cold is something I catch I am giving the body autonomy. I am saying that the body is separate from the mind and that the body as its own agenda, its own mind and that I am helpless against it. I am saying that all the right thinking in the world won’t protect me when someone sneezes on me and I catch their cold. Since I cannot control what happens to the body, the body must be god and I must be its servant.

Then I ask the body what it needs, how I can placate it and bring it back to relative health so it will stop hurting (me). I listen to its needs, and bring it Nyquil and ice cream. I coddle it, and listen to its complaints and believe everything it threatens, an infection, pneumonia, maybe death? Seems extreme, but it could happen. People die of complications all the time.

And if I pray for healing, the ego warns me that there will be a price for my betrayal to its thought system. I think that awakening will bring me healing and the ego says that if the body is the source of my pain then healing of the pain will necessitate the loss of the body. Since I believe myself to be in this body it says that this will mean that I have to die to be saved. Better to stick with the Nyquil for now. I don’t have to give up the idea of awakening, just postpone it. Keep studying and doing practices and keep plenty of magic potions on hand to conciliate the body while I wait for awakening to find me.

What Jesus is helping me to understand is that the body is not autonomous. Sickness does not come from anything outside my mind because nothing is outside my mind, not the body or its pretended agents of destruction. It is an ego conceit that the body can get sick without my consent, and a further absurdity that it can get well by something else outside my mind. This whole thing, a body that is outside the control of mind, is an attack on truth, a defense against God.

God is not separation, is not attack, is not sickness, is not suffering, pain or death. A sick body seems to prove that God is dead, or at least powerless against proof that all of these things exist. If I see myself as a body or even in a body, and I have used the body to prove that there is something outside of God, then I have succeeded in separating myself from God. I have succeeded in destroying God’s very essence, which is Wholeness. No wonder I tremble in fear of God and vastly prefer a world of war and pain and death to facing my Creator Whom I seem to have betrayed in the worst way.

The idea that the body could be sick…. . This is the sticking point. This is where the ego rails against me and calls me crazy, or at the very least, mistaken. I must be misinterpreting this. Of course the body can be sick. It has been sick many times, sometimes very sick. And yet, if the truth is true, then the body cannot be sick. If I think the body is sick, I must be delusional. I must be imagining a body that could be sick. To believe in a sick body, I must believe I am something I am not. Can God be sick? I am His Son, in Him and part of Him. I cannot be sick. Holy Spirit, as I look at the doubt and uncertainty in my mind, please lead me out of temptation. Bring me back to truth.

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