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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-26-12

5-26-12
6 The emphasis of this course always remains the same;-it is at this moment that complete salvation is offered you, and it is at this moment that you can accept it. This is still your one responsibility. Atonement might be equated with total escape from the past and total lack of interest in the future. Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven is now. There is no other time. No teaching that does not lead to this is of concern to God’s teachers. All beliefs will point to this if properly interpreted. In this sense, it can be said that their truth lies in their usefulness. All beliefs that lead to progress should be honored. This is the sole criterion this course requires. No more than this is necessary.

It has been in this study of the Manual for Teachers that I have finally understood that awakening is not an escape from my life. I had begun to understand this, but now I really get it. There is nowhere to go and no time to be. There is only now. I awaken now. I awaken here. Heaven is now. Heaven is here. I lack nothing. There is nothing for me to do, nowhere for me to go. All this work I do is for the purpose of reaching a decision to be what I am. With that decision all is done. However, it must be a decision with no exceptions. It must be wholly desired.

I have come to terms with the fact that from this limited experience I have decided on there is only so much that I will understand. I have made a world of very narrow focus in which I allow myself only a bit of awareness. It seems that I will be limited in this way as long as I continue to choose separation, and so I must trust what I cannot at this moment see and understand. But all is awaiting a new decision on my part. Truth goes nowhere and does not change because I have decided not to acknowledge it. I will know what I am willing to know and eventually I will know all.

Concepts like reincarnation are helpful to the extent that I use them to bring me closer to my true desire. And all concepts can be reinterpreted to accommodate this choice if that is my desire. It seems that is the function of the Holy Spirit in my mind. The Holy Spirit has been showing me this lately as it applies to different religions and different spiritual paths. There were ideas that I had thought were wrong and something to be avoided, that He has reinterpreted for me and the truth at their core has been exposed.

It makes me laugh to think how confused I was that in my search for truth I was going deeper into separation as I judged and rejected. That is what happens when I try to use the ego thinking mind. Judging and separating is all the ego knows so that is all it gives me. Holy Spirit, I set my thoughts aside and wait patiently for your words. 

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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-25-12

5 Does this mean that the teacher of God should not believe in reincarnation himself, or discuss it with others who do? The answer is, certainly not! If he does believe in reincarnation, it would be a mistake for him to renounce the belief unless his internal Teacher so advised. And this is most unlikely. He might be advised that he is misusing the belief in some way that is detrimental to his pupil’s advance or his own. Reinterpretation would then be recommended, because it is necessary. All that must be recognized, however, is that birth was not the beginning, and death is not the end. Yet even this much is not required of the beginner. He need merely accept the idea that what he knows is not necessarily all there is to learn. His journey has begun.

When I first read the Course I was one of the very few people I knew who believed in reincarnation. It made so much sense to me that I couldn’t believe my friends thought I was the weird one. When I saw the title of this section I was both excited and nervous. I was excited to see if I was right and nervous that I wasn’t. I had a lot invested in my belief in this concept. And that’s the problem with concepts. The best concept we can devise is going to fall short of the truth and if we become attached to it we will limit ourselves.

Frankly, I was disappointed with the explanation given here. I wanted a definitive yes and I wasn’t getting it. I was surprised at how much I wanted to be right and that should have told me something right there. It was a long time before I stopped protecting my beliefs. Eventually I was able to drop my defenses and to let go, first some of my concepts, and finally the idea that I know anything. This surrender of self has made room for new ideas, but now I hold them lightly knowing that they will be replaced or expanded upon as I am ready.

For instance, I now understand that it is possible to move my awareness from this body to another at will. I have even had that experience, albeit while I was sleeping and my defenses were completely down. I know that it wasn’t a dream because I woke up during the process and felt the movement of Love and it was the most astonishing thing I have ever experienced. By the way, astonishing doesn’t even begin to cover it. It’s like saying Everest is a really big mountain. I’m looking through all the synonyms for extraordinary and astonishing and the word I need doesn’t seem to exist.

From this experience came a new understanding of what I am but I hold that understanding lightly as well because I know that it is just a taste and not the whole thing. As unbelievable as that experience was, you would think it would change everything, and it has, but not as completely or as permanently as I would like. I find it hard to hold onto that feeling and as it fades I long to have it back. I notice how easy it is to fall back acting like I am separate from everyone else. Sigh.

The Holy Spirit was very patient with me and allowed me all the time I needed to loosen my hold on what I believed so that He could begin to reinterpret for me, but only as I was ready and only as it was helpful. The Holy Spirit is my Teacher and is my model. I try to be like Him. I try to remember that I can’t tell someone else what that person should believe.

I try never to tell someone else they are wrong and don’t understand because that is not what my Teacher does. I try very hard to be as empty as I can be and to listen for what the Holy Spirit knows is the right words to share with each student that is sent to me. When I fail in that, I forgive myself and try again.

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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-24-12

Day 143
4 It cannot be too strongly emphasized that this course aims at a complete reversal of thought. When this is finally accomplished, issues such as the validity of reincarnation become meaningless. Until then, they are likely to be merely controversial. The teacher of God is, therefore, wise to step away from all such questions, for he has much to teach and learn apart from them. He should both learn and teach that theoretical issues but waste time, draining it away from its appointed purpose. If there are aspects to any concept or belief that will be helpful, he will be told about it. He will also be told how to use it. What more need he know?

Just as I suspected, there is much for me to know but I will not know it through picking apart concepts designed by the thinking mind. As Jesus says, this is just a waste of time, time I can instead use to prepare my mind to be used as a conduit for knowledge. This knowledge does not come from me, but through me. I choose to spend my time letting go of ideas that block the flow of this knowledge.

If there are concepts that can be temporarily useful in part or in whole, I will be told and will be directed in how to use them. Other than that, there is no value in them. It’s a trick that took me awhile to master, this allowing theoretical issues to just be, neither rejecting nor accepting them. Well, maybe not master, but I did become more comfortable with it. My mind wanted answers and wanted concrete answers.

I see now that this is ego. Ego wants to name things and thus make them discreet and different from the other thing. God is evidently abstract. I say evidently because I don’t remember God, but this is the idea I get from ACIM. Ego wants the opposite of truth in all things, because this is what ego is. It is idea of being the opposite of God.

So ego wants reincarnation and other concepts to be or not be, and is uncomfortable with the idea that I should let it be neither or both according to its usefulness. I think this is because ego recognizes that this is just another way of saying concepts are meaningless and so can be used or not used, and meaninglessness is frightening to the ego.

Meaninglessness may be frightening to the ego, but it is key to my return Home. As I recognize more and more ideas and beliefs as not good or bad but simply meaningless, I more easily let them go. The more I let go, the more effortlessly I receive and accept what the Holy Spirit would have me know. I become an empty shell, a clear and perfect conduit through which God would live me. It is so odd to think that I am pushing against God, trying to keep Him out.

But that is what’s happening, really, when I say I am, and the I am is less than God. I am pretty. I am ugly. I am guilty. I am afraid. I am smart. I go on and on filling myself with I ams in an attempt to keep God out. Why do I do this? Why am I afraid of God? This is like asking why am I afraid of my Self. It is not a frightening or foolish or mysterious question. It is a meaningless question.

I was talking to Nouk Sanchez one day and she said that she received a message from Spirit that she should set aside everything she thought she knew. She felt resistance to that idea. After all, she had spent years getting to the place she was, how could she just set it all aside? Holy Spirit asked her if she wanted to know about God, or did she want to know God? I want to know God. Holy Spirit, I want to set aside all that I believe defines me. I want to set aside all concepts I have attached to. Please help me to do this.

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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-23-12

Day 142
3 For our purposes, it would not be helpful to take any definite stand on reincarnation. A teacher of God should be as helpful to those who believe in it as to those who do not. If a definite stand were required of him, it would merely limit his usefulness, as well as his own decision-making. Our course is not concerned with any concept that is not acceptable to anyone, regardless of his formal beliefs. His ego will be enough for him to cope with, and it is not the part of wisdom to add sectarian controversies to his burdens. Nor would there be an advantage in his premature acceptance of the course merely because it advocates a long-held belief of his own.

Its obvious that it does not matter if someone believes in reincarnation or not. The only thing that matters is if the person uses it to help him reach his goal of awakening, and not to delay his goal. As a teacher of God I would neither encourage nor discourage because the concept itself is not important. If someone believes in reincarnation it can be used to help him understand that life has nothing to do with the body. I believe that this was very important to me at one time.

When I discovered the concept of reincarnation and then read up on it and some of the studies done which seemed to prove that we live many lives, I lost all belief in death after death. Before that time I had the idea of something living on in heaven or hell but no real feeling for it. I saw it as a body, maybe a little different, but definitely a body, because something had to burn for its sins.

I only concerned myself with my many sins because God would torture this other body for eternity if I didn’t find absolution for my sins before I died. It sounds so crazy to me now that its as if I’m joking when I say this, but it was my belief at the time. I don’t know how we humans live with this belief. There is virtually no way one can go their lives without “sinning” and the only hope as far as I could see was to get lucky enough to die immediately after confession. ~smile~

I loved the idea of reincarnation because it gave me hope that I had more chances. Even if I died with all these sins on my soul, that soul got a chance to atone for them in another life. I still had a strong belief in the body though, because when I imagined meeting myself from a past life I thought I would have, not just the same personality, but I would look like myself.

It took a lot longer for me to go any further in my beliefs. But at that time, the belief in reincarnation gave me hope. I still believed in guilt and punishment, but at least with reincarnation there was hope the punishment would end when I finally got it right. I would do something wrong to someone in this life and I would have to make up for it in another life, or someone would do the same thing to me and that would even the score, cancelling out my sin. This would obviously never end because I was so far from living a perfect life that I would be lucky if I got it right before the earth went nova. But at least it would keep me away from God’s judgment and hell until that happened.

The concept of reincarnation, in my experience, can be a helpful stepping stone, a bridge to a deeper understanding of a mystery that may forever be just out of my reach, at least as long as I am dreaming a dream of separation. Would I ever tell someone they are wrong for their beliefs? No. That would be foolishly arrogant of me. That would be like a child making fun of his friend for believing in Santa while he dreamed of being just like his hero, Spider Man. I don’t know the truth of things, and only have metaphors to help me bridge my ignorance until complete enlightenment. Its enough for me.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-22-12

Day 141
2 Reincarnation would not, under any circumstances, be the problem to be dealt with now. If it were responsible for some of the difficulties the individual faces now, his task would still be only to escape from them now. If he is laying the groundwork for a future life, he can still work out his salvation only now. To some, there may be comfort in the concept, and if it heartens them its value is self-evident. It is certain, however, that the way to salvation can be found by those who believe in reincarnation and by those who do not. The idea cannot, therefore, be regarded as essential to the curriculum. There is always some risk in seeing the present in terms of the past. There is always some good in any thought which strengthens the idea that life and the body are not the same.
I never think in terms of past lives anymore, but simply as other lives and even that may not be correct. For certain, though, past and future are just words and concepts we made up to make the illusion of separation. But from within the illusion where time is a concept we must take into consideration, dwelling in any time other than the present can be a distraction and an ego delaying tactic.

I can look into the past to see why I am afraid of heights, but it is in this moment that I decide to live my life without fear. I have read that sometimes when a person does a past life regression and discovers the reason for a behavior that behavior stops. But I think that must be like taking medicine for a problem.

It works because we have made a decision to be free of the illness. The medicine provides a way to get well that does not threaten our concepts too much. When we are ready, and when the natural healing will not frighten us, we will not need treatments to experience health. Health will be our natural state when the mind is healed of the belief in sickness.

In the same way, when I am ready to lead a fearless life, I will be healed of my fear of heights. Maybe a past life regression would help me release that fear but another would rise up to take its place. My goal is not to be free of a fear of heights, but to be free of fear, and that healing takes place right here, right now and needs no special agents.

There is nothing harmful in peaking at another life I have experienced as long as I remember where it is that healing takes place, and not use the belief in reincarnation as just another way to play around in the illusion. 

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-21-12

Day 140
24. IS REINCARNATION SO?
1 In the ultimate sense, reincarnation is impossible. There is no past or future, and the idea of birth in a body has no meaning either once or many times. Reincarnation cannot, then, be true in any real sense. Our only question should be, “Is the concept helpful”? And that depends, of course, on what it is used for. If it is used to strengthen the recognition of the eternal nature of life, it is helpful indeed. Is any other question about it really useful in lighting up the way? Like many other beliefs, it can be bitterly misused. At least, such misuse offers preoccupation and perhaps pride in the past. At worst, it induces inertia in the present. In between, many kinds of folly are possible.

There is so much I just do not know. I get that reincarnation is not what I thought it was. That’s ok, because I’m no longer in love with the idea that anything has to be a certain way. It seems that I have multiple experiences and none of them are real, just thoughts in the mind. I’m not born into a body, nor do I die from a body. This only seems to be happening.

And who is “I” anyway? It’s a good question, and asking it helps me open to the realization that I don’t know the answer and that I want to know the answer. Because I am coming from a place of complete unknowing, it is obviously not up to me to somehow get this information. The only helpful thing I can do is to acknowledge my ignorance. I am making room for something true in my mind by letting go of the idea that I already know. The only other thing for me to do is to desire knowledge. As I let go of trying to think this out with my little mind, I will be given knowledge.

There is no past, nor future. This understanding has been given to me so I know it is true as far as it goes. It is true to the extent that words can describe it and my limited view allows me to see it. I seem to have had experiences, and my understanding is that all of these experiences happened at once. It seems that I can access those experiences through placing my awareness there. I can use those experiences to awaken us if that is my choice. And all of that may simply be a metaphor for what happens. I don’t know.

If it is just a metaphor then it is a useful one, and if I need to understand differently, then that will be given me. It’s the same with the idea of reincarnation. It can be a useful metaphor as long as I don’t misuse it. If I use it to stay focused on the past I will fail to use this story, my present experience, to heal my mind.

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Study of Manual for Teachers 5-20-12

Day 139
7 This course has come from him because his words have reached you in a language you can love and understand. Are other teachers possible, to lead the way to those who speak in different tongues and appeal to different symbols? Certainly there are. Would God leave anyone without a very present help in time of trouble; a savior who can symbolize Himself? Yet do we need a many-faceted curriculum, not because of content differences, but because symbols must shift and change to suit the need. Jesus has come to answer yours. In him you find God’s Answer. Do you, then, teach with him, for he is with you; he is always here.

It only makes sense that there would be other forms of the same course. Not everyone is going to be attracted to this format. It is very western, very cerebral, which is funny since it leads us to let go of thinking. I love A Course in Miracles. I love it more and more as I grow into it. But I also find other formats helpful. I study The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament and sometimes it feels like a relief to read it after a particularly convoluted passage from the Course because NTI is more simply written.

I enjoy The Teachings of Inner Ramana, a westernized eastern teaching. Very deep teachings expressed in a minimum of words. Byron Katie’s The Work has powerful spiritual principles expressed in such a way that anyone of any religion or no religion can use it to become more realized. I enjoyed The Way of Mastery very much and it is like the Course, but has an entirely different tone.

The Holy Spirit has brought me to a number of different books and teachers, and sometimes these teachings seem to be a permanent part of my path and sometimes there seemed to be only an idea that He wanted me to see. I always ask Him to help me integrate what I am reading, to see and accept what it is in the teaching He would have me know.

Words can get in the way if I take them too literally. I hold the meanings lightly, remembering what the Course says about words. It says they are but symbols of symbols and thus twice removed from reality. It also reminds us that words are made by us to keep us separated. We shouldn’t be surprised then, that even in the Course community there can be debate and argument about the meaning of words in A Course in Miracles. This is, after all, the reason we made words, to keep us separate. And this is the reason I’m not exact in my use of terms.

I also think it is the reason I can enjoy so many forms of teaching without becoming confused. I had to laugh yesterday as I realized that some of the ideas from my religious background that I learned to dislike and even found offensive, I now see as true. The less attention I pay to differences, the more unified everything appears to me.

While I can find truth in many places, my heart seeks its answers from Jesus. I feel an affinity for his teachings, and love and gratitude for what he has done for us and continues to do. I feel gratitude that I have a part in his plan of Atonement, and that I feel his presence and his guidance as I do my part.

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