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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-11-12

Day 71
5 The central lesson is always this; that what you use the body for it will become to you. Use it for sin or for attack, which is the same as sin, and you will see it as sinful. Because it is sinful it is weak, and being weak, it suffers and it dies. Use it to bring the Word of God to those who have it not, and the body becomes holy. Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die. When its usefulness is done it is laid by, and that is all. The mind makes this decision, as it makes all decisions that are responsible for the body’s condition. Yet the teacher of God does not make this decision alone. To do that would be to give the body another purpose from the one that keeps it holy. God’s Voice will tell him when he has fulfilled his role, just as It tells him what his function is. He does not suffer either in going or remaining. Sickness is now impossible to him.

This is very simple. If I use my body for attack it will become sick and die. It is strange how often I choose attack, especially now that I am fully aware of the consequences. I was trying to think of the last time I attacked someone when I realized that my thoughts count. Uh oh. Seriously, since attack leads to suffering and death, I am amazed that my body has held up for this long. I have this casual litany of attack going through my mind nearly continually.

Every time I make someone separate in my mind, I have attacked him. I see someone walk by and my mind judges their body, their fashion sense, their posture… whatever catches my eye. I have seen this person as separate and this is an attack. It is an attack on them, and an attack on myself.

If I am alone, my mind dredges up old grievances to replay. This is an attack. I often think that I would be happier if circumstances were different. This is an attack. I compare myself unfavorably to someone else. This is an attack. I behave in self-destructive ways, and this is an attack.

I could get depressed thinking of how many ways I attack and the unlikelihood of me changing all of them. But the Holy Spirit has told me many times that it is not necessary to be concerned about the many different forms. All those forms of attack are the result in a mistaken belief. It is only the belief that I will have to change.

And the belief is beginning to change. When I notice I am judging someone it feels bad. I don’t want that thought in my mind. I often realize that I don’t believe that thought. Other changes indicate to me that my vigilance and my willingness have made a difference. For instance, I was with someone that I have judged in the past and that I have felt separate from, and when by chance our eyes met, I felt gladness and gratitude swell up in my heart. Nothing said or done created this feeling; it was grace alone and had nothing to do with the ego.

Without attack the body would be perfectly healthy and would not suffer or die, but would simply be laid aside when no longer needed. This is an amazing statement. The Course has said that death is a decision I make and I see that this is true. As I choose attack as a way of life, I am choosing a slow death. When I choose oneness instead of attack, the body cannot die or suffer. Both are decisions I make.

I has been slowly coming, but I now realize that everything that happens to the body is the result of a choice I have made, a belief that I hold. All sickness, pain, suffering are the result of believing in separation, and separation is an attack on myself. I know that I have moved from an intellectual understanding of this idea to a deeper knowing, because when I feel suffering in the body I don’t look for an outside cause, but go immediately to the mind as cause.

And if, out of habit I think for awhile that a germ or a virus or an accident got me, I quickly remember the absurdity of this idea; as if the germ, the virus or the accident could come into play without my decision that they do so. These seeming agents of suffering and death are merely attack taking form within my dream of separation. When separation is no longer desired, what use will I have for agents of death?

The other statement that is important to me is that while setting the body aside is a decision I make, it is not one that I make alone, because the idea of alone is an attack, as it is a return to the idea of separation. It is with the Holy Spirit that this decision is made. Of course it is! I am learning to ask the Holy Spirit for His guidance in all things as let go of the false identity of ego. When my lessons are done, and there is no longer any use for the body, the Holy Spirit will guide me to that decision as well. Nothing could be more perfect.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-10-12

Day 70
4 Yet what makes God’s teachers is their recognition of the proper purpose of the body. As they advance in their profession, they become more and more certain that the body’s function is but to let God’s Voice speak through it to human ears. And these ears will carry to the mind of the hearer messages that are not of this world, and the mind will understand because of their Source. From this understanding will come the recognition, in this new teacher of God, of what the body’s purpose really is; the only use there really is for it. This lesson is enough to let the thought of unity come in, and what is one is recognized as one. The teachers of God appear to share the illusion of separation, but because of what they use the body for, they do not believe in the illusion despite appearances. 

For a long time after I found the Course, I was confused about how I was to feel about the body. I understood that my body was not real, because it was not created by God, but was made as an illusion of my self. Because this understanding was mostly just a concept with no real acceptance as truth, I didn’t know how to think of the body.

I would wonder if its not real then should I stop taking care of it? Am I believing in the body if I give it vitamins? Am I making the illusion more real to me if I take it to the doctor or give it medicine? Should I treat it with unconcern, or with contempt?

After all, the body is the home of the ego and represents my desire to be separate from God. If I give the body too much thought would I be compounding the original error? The unacknowledged but pervasive thought seemed to be that if I separated myself in all ways from the body then maybe God would see that I was no longer serious about being separate from Him and I would be safe from His anger and allowed to return home.

I am learning to see things differently. I don’t have complete clarity, but I feel more comfortable about the body now that I feel more comfortable about its use. The body is not a symbol of sin unless I see it that way. We made illusions (including the body) to allow us to try on an idea, but we are not guilty for that. If we are not guilty for our foray into the idea of separation, then the body is not an object of guilt either.

Whatever we made to express separation, the Holy Spirit will use to bring us home if that is our choice. The body is no different. In this paragraph Jesus is helping me to understand this. He is asking me to use the body to allow communication from Source to pass from my mouth to your ear. My experience has been that this communication can be in the form of writing, or speaking. It can be formal as it is right now, or it can be a kind word to a frightened brother.

When someone is telling me about a fearful situation in their lives, I can tell them about one of my fearful situations, which I am certain is worse than theirs. This is the ego’s idea of communication. Or I can tell them that I understand, but isn’t it a blessing that appearances do not prove that the truth is not true, and I can suggest a different way to see. This is the proper use of the body. If people attack me with their words, I can defend myself and maybe attack them in return. Or I can understand their fear and love them anyway.

The proper use of the body for a true communication devise comes from full surrender. The ego cannot be part of the communication no matter how well meaning I am, or how spiritual I sound. The thinking mind will want to decide, based on my spiritual studies, what needs to be said, but this is not true communication.

To the degree that I let go of the ego desire to speak, and surrender my body to Christ, the perfect words are given me to speak. Sometimes what I say is puzzling to me, because I don’t understand why these words are helpful. I am learning to trust the process, and do my best not to question in retrospect, nor try to waste time wondering why I said what I said and what it all means. That’s just the ego-thinking mind trying to reestablish its dominance.

I am not consistent in surrendering the body for the Holy Spirit’s use, but I do it as often as I think to. This effort helps me do it more often. When I say something that is truly helpful it is not because I am a good student of the Course, or because I am more advanced than another person. It is because I have surrendered the body for that purpose, and allowed the Voice for God to speak through me. (The ego doesn’t like these words and thinks this is arrogance, but how can full surrender be anything but humility.)

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-9-12

Day 69
3 Why is the illusion of many necessary? Only because reality is not understandable to the deluded. Only very few can hear God’s Voice at all, and even they cannot communicate His messages directly through the Spirit which gave them. They need a medium through which communication becomes possible to those who do not realize that they are spirit. A body they can see. A voice they understand and listen to, without the fear that truth would encounter in them. Do not forget that truth can come only where it is welcomed without fear. So do God’s teachers need a body, for their unity could not be recognized directly.

I can understand that we need to hear the words from a voice that appears to be in the dream with us. I hear the Voice for God in my mind daily and yet, at times I still have trouble crediting it. I sometimes have trouble discerning which is His Voice and which is my own ego voice. When I think about that, its funny. How could I mistake the ego for God? And usually when I gain clarity I see that it was not that the two voices were so similar I could not tell them apart, but that I favored the ego story and didn’t want it to be wrong.

When I discovered the writings of Eckert Tolle I was very excited because it was my first encounter with a present day awakened being. It was confirmation that as hard as it seems to me, maybe it really is possible. The first time I read A Thousand Names for Joy and realized that Byron Katie is awakened, my heart swelled with joy because not only is she living now, but she is a woman and so I related to her in a more immediate way. She is a woman who had a real story full of drama and mistakes just like me, and yet, she did awaken.

These people are helpful also because they speak my language and have similar backgrounds. I can understand them, and feel our paths are not so different that I can’t possibly go where they went. Jesus lived a real life, too, but it was so long ago and has been changed through time to make him seem too special for me to relate to. So while I love him and appreciate him, I cannot think of him as just one of us. (What is that song, “What if God were just one us…”)?

I think we need different voices speaking to us of the truth, and speaking in different ways. What I can understand and relate to might not be useful to another person. Even though they are saying the same thing, they are saying it in different ways and that is helpful. My friend, Alisha, has found her path with the help of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Sonja is finding help through Joel Goldsmith. Lisa is inspired by Mooji (who also touches me). The truth seems to be coming through in many ways, but it is still the one truth coming through the one awakened mind. It only appears different.

And do we have to be fully and permanently awakened to be a teacher of God? Obviously not since Jesus has told us that the way to awaken is to teach what we want to learn. It seems from the story of her life and the people who knew her that Helen was certain of her purpose only when she was scribing the Course. Regina is not awakened as far as I know, and yet she has been my principle teacher for a long time now. She allowed NTI and The Teachings of Inner Ramana to come through her, and when she did she was in her one purpose.

I teach truth when my mind is clear, that is when I know my purpose and all other imagined purposes have fallen away. Probably we all are teachers of that order sometimes, and what we are doing now is learning to stay in that truth more and more so that we can be the teachers of God we are meant to be. 

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-8-12

Day 68

2 Thus does the son of man become the Son of God. It is not really a change; it is a change of mind. Nothing external alters, but everything internal now reflects only the Love of God. God can no longer be feared, for the mind sees no cause for punishment. God’s teachers appear to be many, for that is what is the world’s need. Yet being joined in one purpose, and one they share with God, how could they be separate from each other? What does it matter if they then appear in many forms? Their minds are one; their joining is complete. And God works through them now as one, for that is what they are.

Ah, now I understand how there is only one Teacher needed, when there seems to be many. As we wake up, we remember our wholeness and we remember our purpose, and so we know that we are one. We still appear to be separate entities, but we know that this is just an illusion that is helpful in the moment.

The Holy Spirit is a bridge between God and His sleeping Son. The Holy Spirit sees what we see, but does not believe it. In this way He can help us make the transition from the ego mind we believe we are to the whole mind we truly are. When I ask Him for help it feels like He is saying, “Yes, I understand how you feel. Let me tell you what is really happening.”

What Jesus is telling me here in this paragraph makes me think the aware Teacher reflects the Holy Spirit’s function.  I don’t remember what it is like to be awake so I can only speak from what I have read and what I feel, but I think it is something like this. The advanced Teacher of God seems to the rest of us to be in the world, in a body, sharing the same experiences that we are having. But this Teacher only seems to be the same as before. Her experience is very different. She sees the world we see but, like the Holy Spirit, is not fooled by the illusion. She has one function, one purpose that she shares with all and with God.

The difference between me and the one who is living awake is that I now often know my one purpose, but I also think I have other purposes. This dualism starts when I wake up. Because I travel in my work and often spend the night in a different hotel in a different city, I usually open my eyes and look around to situate myself in a place in time and space. Oh, I’m in a hotel room this morning. Yes, I’m in Alexandria. It’s Thursday, this means I will probably finish my rounds and go home tonight. I then remind myself that I have some writing to do and some posting so I had better find some coffee.

Just in that brief moment on awakening, I have established myself as a separate person with unique circumstances and needs. I have fulfilled my need to find the point in time and space which is different from anyone else’s on the planet. It is my purpose to occupy this space, to do the things I do, to see the people I see.

It is my purpose to visit customers and keep them bound to me so they don’t buy from someone else. It is my purpose to navigate the roads in such a way as to keep a bubble of separation around my car so that no one else tries to occupy my space at the same time I am in it. It is my purpose to eat healthy foods today and it also seems to be my purpose to often fail in this.

It is my purpose to seek comfort in knowing I am not entirely alone in my little bubble of existence by getting as close as I can (without invading their space) to certain other people. It is my purpose to defend my self in a thousand little ways all day long. Recently, it has become my purpose to remember that I have only one true purpose and to let the others go as accept that they have no value.

Just writing this makes me tired. It is a lonely existence even when surrounded by other people. It is lonely because we each have our own purposes and mostly these purposes are about defending our little point in time and space from other people. I hear the discordant voices. “Leave my customer alone. Leave my husband/wife alone. Leave my child alone. This is my house, what are you doing in it? My money, my food, my clothes. I win, you lose.”

It makes me sad that I still feel attached to this world of separation. I have tasted the truth and long for more and yet here I am, even before I lift my head from the pillow, deciding which purpose is the most urgent. I don’t know why I even wonder, coffee is going to win every time. ~smile~

Since I still sleep-walk through the world I can only guess at this next part, but I imagine that from an awakened awareness I will still do most of the things I do now, but I will not do them from a sense of purpose. Work will be what I do, not my purpose. I will drink coffee, or not, because it is there, not from a desperate need of caffeine to jump start my brain.

I will visit customers for the pure joy of it rather than for the purpose of protecting my territory. Things and people will be in my life and then will leave and the next things will appear only to disappear and I will be happy each time. There will be no sense of loss, because it is not my purpose to bring them into my world, nor my purpose to keep them in my world. I won’t spend my every waking moment planning the next moment because I will be directed, lived through, by something outside the self. I will have let go of attachment to everything that is not my one purpose.

These are my thoughts about living awake. And if I am wrong, that’s okay too. I know that in spite of my resistance, I am meant to be a teacher of God. I have one purpose that I sometimes forget, but I do have that one purpose, and I share that purpose with All That Is. I am ever so slowly letting go of attachment to all other purposes. Holy Spirit, please help me today to choose consistently for God. I give You all the willingness I have.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-7-12

Day 67
12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD?

1 The answer to this question is-one. One wholly perfect teacher, whose learning is complete, suffices. This one, sanctified and redeemed, becomes the Self Who is the Son of God. He who was always wholly spirit now no longer sees himself as a body, or even as in a body. Therefore he is limitless. And being limitless, his thoughts are joined with God’s forever and ever. His perception of himself is based upon God’s judgment, not his own. Thus does he share God’s Will, and bring His Thoughts to still deluded minds. He is forever one, because he is as God created him. He has accepted Christ; and he is saved.

Before I began this section, I read through it. I am so excited to see what Jesus brings me in understanding as I do each paragraph!

I read this paragraph again and I felt my heart swell as I recognized it as both truth and possible. I can be that one wholly perfect teacher. I can be the Teacher who carries the message. I can put aside my own judgment and accept only God’s. I can be limitless. I can accept Christ.

Immediately, the ego drags me back to earth and tries to bind me to its reality. It says that I cannot be this and it is arrogant to think so; more than arrogant, sinful. It reminded me of all the millions of false beliefs and judgments that are still fixed in my mind. What about those, it asks. It will take many lifetimes to undo all of that. What about all the errors from the past, some of which are awful, mortal sins. How could such a person stained with guilt be the One Self who is savior to all?

The ego is so very frightened of awakening. It is deathly afraid of God. I remind myself that I am not that, though I mostly believe I am exactly that. Holy Spirit, I am willing to turn my eyes from the ego vision of self, and fix them purposefully and determinedly on the Truth, but I need Your help. That scary picture of my self the ego shows me seems more real to me than the one You offer.

But even when I look to the body and its personality in fear that this is all I am, I cannot really believe that either, and there goes my heart, soaring again at the thought of being one with All that Is! Hah! I may not be ready just yet to accept my place among God’s advanced Teachers, but I am never going to be able to believe that I am truly ego either. I seem to be in neither Heaven nor Hell. Perhaps there is a purgatory after all.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-6-12

Day 66

4 Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped! It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. Yet has God’s Judgment on this distorted world redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in joyous answer. Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has entered. What else but a Thought of God turns hell to Heaven merely by being what it is? The earth bows down before its gracious Presence, and it leans down in answer, to raise it up again. Now is the question different. It is no longer, “Can peace be possible in this world?” but instead, “Is it not impossible that peace be absent here?”

I loved yesterday, and not because great things happened. Actually it was the usual mixed bag, but no matter what the appearance, I remembered the truth. I would notice a loss of peace and would remind myself that peace is possible in every circumstance. I would remember to disregard the appearance.

A really helpful reminder came through my friend, Deborah, as we were doing a course together. Remember the lesson that says,” I think I am _______. But my mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.” This was part of the course and it stuck with me all during the day. Here is an example that occurred at the end of the day.

It was getting near 4:00 and I realized that I was going to have to drive part way to my morning destination if I were to get everything done the next day. I could drive about half-way there which would take two and a half hours. So I left the office and went home to pack. There were a couple things to take care of before I left and with that and the packing, I started getting anxious about the time. I had been tired during the day and now was more tired. It was dark and I don’t have good night vision and that was a concern, too.

I noticed the anxiety and stopped a moment to check in with Holy Spirit. I said to myself, “I am late. I am tired. I am uncomfortable driving at night. But my mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.” My heart leapt with joy at the memory. I can’t be tired or late or fearful of night driving. My mind is part of God’s and these things cannot be part of him, so they cannot be part of me. I can simply disregard the appearance of these things in my life because they cannot possibly be true.

In peace, I continued to gather my things and to do the little chores that had to be done. Time continued to pass and I continued to be undisturbed even though it was now thirty minutes past my original goal for leaving. And that turned out to be a blessing. In my rush to get going, I had forgotten I had a couple coming by to discuss their wedding.

When they got to the house I was surprised, and I was grateful that while I had forgotten, the Holy Spirit had not. I was also calm and happy which I would not have been had I continued being worried and fretful about the time. We had a wonderful visit and without anxiety taking up space in my mind, I was able to be there fully for them.

As we spoke they decided to do the ceremony right then and there rather than wait. They realized, I think, that it was the only way they were going to keep it simple and uncomplicated. I like to have time to plan and design just the right ceremony for my couples, and this could have thrown me, but tonight I was in perfect peace. I trusted that whatever I said was the perfect thing to say and needed no planning.

They were very happy with the wedding and said it was just exactly what they had hoped for. When it came time for them to pay me, I offered to take half my fee because it was so little work for me, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They said it was too precious to them and insisted on writing a check for the full amount. I was grateful to the Holy Spirit who guided me through the whole process, and was not unaware of how different this would have all turned out if I had been in a fearful, anxious state.

Now it was a great deal later than I had planned to leave and I considered not going but when I thought about it, I realized that was not an option. Those conflicting thoughts - I don’t want to go/I must go – are the war in my mind that Jesus talks about. And with that war, the tiredness set in again. Then I remembered that this need not be. My mind is part of God’s. Is there loss of energy and loss of clarity in God’s Mind? Then that cannot be true for me either. Those feelings must be an illusion.  I drove and I felt alert and very peaceful and happy the whole way. Thank you, God! I love you, God.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-5-12

Day 65

3 The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you have made. These problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those who believe in them. And everyone believes in what he made, for it was made by his believing it. Into this strange and paradoxical situation,—one without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems possible,—God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. Gently His Judgment substitutes for yours. And through this substitution is the un-understandable made understandable. How is peace possible in this world? In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. But in the Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace.

If what I believe is true for me, and I believe that peace is not possible then the first thing I want to do is to let God’s word substitute for mine. He says peace is possible therefore it is. I am fully ready to accept God’s judgment of this. I may have trouble doing the rest, but I accept that peace is possible regardless of the appearance of things.

The next step is to accept God’s judgments in place of mine. First I would have to be aware of my problems and willing to look with Holy Spirit at my judgments, then allow new thoughts about them to take their place in my mind. When we get down to specifics like that I notice that it is sometimes harder. After all, the reason I have these problems is because I believe in them, and now I will be asked to see them as meaningless. This may sometimes require a significant shift in my thinking.

For instance, when I lost a large customer and at the same time was threatened by the loss of another, I knew that I could see peace instead of the panic that was in my mind. But I was having trouble letting go of my belief that this was a real problem. The solution seemed to be out of my hands, while the boss still expected a solution, or at least someone to accept the blame. It seemed such an impossible situation that I didn’t see how I could have peace. Every time I reminded myself that I could see peace instead of this the ego showed me another objection to peace.

What Holy Spirit was finally able to help me see is that I was trying to find peace within the situation. I was trying to find a way to change what was happening so that I could be peaceful, and when I couldn’t change it, I thought I couldn’t be peaceful. I knew I was making a mistake but my mind was so confused that I couldn’t figure out what the mistake was. But I did continue to ask for help, and my consistent desire for correction finally out-weighed my desire to judge what was happening.

As soon as I stopped trying to fix the situation and instead let go of what I thought the situation meant, I felt the peace of God flood me. I gave it words later, or maybe the Holy Spirit gave me words because I still need them, but the peace was simply there. I only needed to stop what I was doing in order to have the peace of God.

The other kind of judgment I deal with is the habitual ones. They don’t necessarily come with a lot of drama, but are simply there in what seems small, and often insignificant, problems, and there are lots of those judgments. The mistake I make is to think that because they don’t upset me as much that they are not important, but all forms of judgment on my part must be let go if I am to have peace.

I see a person at the store act rudely and there is an instant judgment. I am for a moment out of peace as I believe she is guilty and I am her victim. I have just taught the mind that we are separate, we are guilty and we are victims. This is not the way to peace, and I do this sort of thing many times a day. But now that I am more aware, I see what is happening and this gives me many opportunities to choose differently. Each time I notice I practice my willingness to let go of my judgment so that God can give me His judgment instead and with it, His peace.

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