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The Goal of Special Relationships and

Pathways of Light Course 905: Special Relationships VS Holy Relationships describes the goal of a special relationship: In truth, love in this world of bodies really means, “I want to be special, but I also feel alone, lacking and unworthy, which I can’t stand. Will you be my special partner and promise to keep your body around and help me feel special? This will help submerge my pangs of loneliness, lack and unworthiness. I will get the specialness, acknowledgment and attention I want so desperately. In return I will shower you with specialness. I will agree to give special attention to you and shower you with my exclusive ‘love.’ Through our alliance in being special partners, we will avoid the side-effects of loneliness and guilt that our desire for specialness brings. We will be happy our way, in our little world of specialness. We will be each others idols and replace the Love of God.”

This doesn’t have to be. We can choose differently. We can recognize our oneness in God and by setting a clear intention to express that truth of our selves; we open our mind to the Holy Spirit for the healing of those specialness thoughts. We don’t have to do it alone, and in fact, cannot do it alone; to receive His help we need only to look honestly at what we are doing and ask for correction.

The point is that whoever is saner at the time can stop the cycle of attack and defend. It doesn’t matter who does it because no one is trying to win on a personal level. They recognize that unless both of them win, neither wins. They are in this together. No one is trying to get something from the other.

Just recognizing that we are trying to complete ourselves through our relationships and that this never works is enough to open our mind to another possibility. There is a way to be in relationships that honor our self and our partner by honoring God as our Creator. We can achieve this by looking honestly at our relationships and asking the Holy Spirit to correct our errors.

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Manual for Teachers, 7. Should Healing Be Repeated? P 1. 7-25-20

7. SHOULD HEALING BE REPEATED?
1 This question really answers itself. Healing cannot be repeated. If the patient is healed, what remains to heal him from? And if the healing is certain, as we have already said it is, what is there to repeat? For a teacher of God to remain concerned about the result of healing is to limit the healing. It is now the teacher of God himself whose mind needs to be healed. And it is this he must facilitate. He is now the patient, and he must so regard himself. He has made a mistake, and must be willing to change his mind about it. He lacked the trust that makes for giving truly, and so he has not received the benefit of his gift.

If I feel the desire to repeat a healing, if I doubt the first healing worked, I must be judging from appearances. I would have approached the healing with a set outcome in my mind and then tried to achieve that outcome. Now when the outcome does not match my idea of what it should look like, I am disappointed and think something went wrong.
I asked Holy Spirit for a way to see this that would be clear to me. I see in my mind that I am standing before the patient. I have the desire to be a healing instrument and I start by telling the Holy Spirit how he should heal this person and what that healing should look like. Then I kind of (metaphorically) shove Him out of the way so I can make this happen. Oh my, this is hysterical!

Show me another one, Holy Spirit.
I’m standing before the patient with a desire to be a healing instrument. My mind is clear and I allow light to fill it. The Holy Spirit rises in my mind to meet the Holy Spirit in her mind and I am filled with joy to be used in such a miraculous way. I feel only love in this holy instant of joining, and gratitude that it is done.

Then I shift my awareness back into time and the body, and begin to doubt that such a thing could happen. I look at the patient and she seems the same to my body’s eyes. Did I do anything? Who do I think I am that I could heal anyone? What would people think if they heard me make such claims? And where is my proof?

I see, Holy Spirit, how this happens, and I also see that the healer needs healing. I recognize these thoughts and these feelings. I know what to do with them. Having seen them in my mind and looked at them with you, having felt the fear and guilt, the shame and discouragement that they produce, I ask you to heal my mind. I long to return to the ease of surrender. I long to be the clear and open channel of healing.

The Holy Spirit shows me one more picture. Its like I am looking at a split screen. On one side I stand in light with my brother. We are holding hands and are at peace. Our minds are being healed. On the other screen, I stand facing my brother. I want to heal him but there are so many things to consider and I am confused and uncertain.

Thank you, Holy Spirit. I gladly surrender the desire to be the one in charge. To understand my part and to trust past all appearances is what it means to have a healed mind.

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When a Brother Acts Insanely

Instead of trying to figure out why I was attacked, and who shares what portion of blame; instead of trying to work out an appropriate defense and so attack in return; instead of filling my life with anger and fear, I have another choice. A Course in Miracles says, “This calls for salvation, not attack.” As I choose the Voice for God I am shown how to save the world through forgiveness. I am free to overlook what I thought was hurtful to me by seeing that nothing anyone says to me can hurt me. It is only how I feel about what they say that is hurtful, so there was no attack by that person. I attacked myself and I forgive myself for that attack. As I recognize my own invulnerability, I teach that person his invulnerability. As I teach him his invulnerability, I convince myself of my own. As the Course says:

“When a brother acts insanely, he is offering you an opportunity
to bless him. His need is yours. You need the blessing you can
offer him. There is no way for you to have it except by giving it.
This is the law of God, and it has no exceptions.”

True forgiveness is such a lovely, elegant solution to all the misery we cause each other through our endless attack and defend reactions. And, best of all, it is so simple; not many solutions to many problems, but one solution to all problems. Simple, simple, simple.

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Manual for Teachers, 6.. Is Healing Certain? P 4. 7-16-20

6. IS HEALING CERTAIN? P4
4 It is the relinquishing of all concern about the gift that makes it truly given. And it is trust that makes true giving possible. Healing is the change of mind that the Holy Spirit in the patient’s mind is seeking for him. And it is the Holy Spirit in the mind of the giver Who gives the gift to him. How can it be lost? How can it be ineffectual? How can it be wasted? God’s treasure house can never be empty. And if one gift is missing, it would not be full. Yet is its fullness guaranteed by God. What concern, then, can a teacher of God have about what becomes of his gifts? Given by God to God, who in this holy exchange can receive less than everything?

What stands out for me in this paragraph are lines 3 and 4.

Healing is the change of mind that the Holy Spirit in the patient’s mind is seeking for him. And it is the Holy Spirit in the mind of the giver Who gives the gift to him.

The healing is accomplished through the union of the Holy Spirit, in both minds, for a single purpose, which is to accomplish a change of mind. So, the Holy Spirit in the patient’s mind determines what is needed. The Holy Spirit in my mind offers this gift. What is my part? It seems that I am to step back and allow it to happen. Stepping back means I will not try to direct the healing or make it happen. I will not decide what it should look like and if it is successful. I will not decide what the gift is, or how it should be accepted.

I will simply be the willing instrument of healing. No wonder I don’t have to be concerned about what happens to my gifts. Once again, I realize that while my part is vital, it is very small. I used to be distracted when the ego resented this, and wanted to do more and wanted credit. I don’t even hear the ego’s complaints anymore. I am only grateful to know my part and to know that I can do what is asked of me. There is nothing for me to be concerned about. As Jesus reassures us, “Yet is its fullness guaranteed by God.”

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What It Says

What It Says

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
This section begins by pointing out the difference between reality and illusion. Truth is unalterable, eternal and unambiguous. We can ignore the truth but we cannot change it. It exists because it is the truth. Illusion, on the other hand, is based on perception, that is, we decide what it means and so it is completely undependable. Knowing this, we can be taught to tell the difference between what is real and what is not. Then we can choose to believe in one or the other. Our choice doesn’t change reality but it does change our experience.

You cannot escape without help, because everything your senses show merely witnesses to the reality of the dream. God has provided the Answer, the only Way out, the true Helper.
We cannot heal our own mind. We need something outside of time and space to help us and that is the function of the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is to ask Him to correct our perception and then accept His answer over the interpretation provided by our thinking mind. In this way, we unlearn our mistakes and reverse our thinking. We awaken from this crazy dream.

The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference—the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds. “Projection makes perception”
We have been mistaken when we thought we looked at the world and then decided what it means. The truth is, we look within to decide what the world should look like to us and then we project it outward, see it there, and then decide how we want to perceive it. It is exactly opposite of what we have always thought and knowing this one fact changes everything. The world is what I want it to be and so it is impossible that I could be a victim of it or that anything could be unfair. We undo all this by forgiving it, that is, undoing it. We look at what we have done, recognize that we don’t like the effects, and then we give the thought/belief that is at the root of the situation to the Holy Spirit to be undone for us.

Only minds can really join, and whom God has joined no man can put asunder (Text, p. 356).
This has nothing to do with relationships as we normally experience them. We use relationships to get what we think we need from the other person. We use people as love objects and thus completely obscure love. These special relationships can be transformed into holy relationships as we give them to the Holy Spirit. It is not the form of the relationship that this quote refers to. We can only join at the level of Christ Mind and really, we don’t join with others but actually realize that we are joined and nothing can change that.

Perception is a function of the body, and therefore represents a limit on awareness.
Perception is simply the way we see things. It is not truth and cannot be truth here because it is a function of the body. We look with our eyes, hear with our ears and we judge what we think we know. But we don’t know anything. Believing our perceptions is the cause of our unhappiness, lack of peace, strife, and often is projected onto the body as sickness and eventually, death.

The opposite of perception is seeing with Christ Vision and hearing the Voice for God rather than using the eyes and the ears. It is the exact opposite in effect as it brings joy and peace. Christ’s vision is the Holy Spirit’s gift, God’s alternative to the illusion of separation and to the belief in the reality of sin, guilt and death.

Through forgiveness the thinking of the world is reversed.
Forgiveness doesn’t exist in Heaven where there is no use for it. Only here where we imagine there is something other than God do we need forgiveness. We forgive the errors in our mind, meaning we release our own perceptions to accept the truth instead, at least the closest we can come to truth here. Forgiveness turns everything around. It undoes the ego and all its effects. Through forgiveness, we release our belief in guilt and free ourselves and our brothers.

Forgetting all our misperceptions, and with nothing from the past to hold us back, we can remember God. Beyond this, learning cannot go. When we are ready, God Himself will take the final step in our return to Him.
Watching our thoughts, releasing them to the Holy Spirit for purification, forgiving ourselves and each other and forgiving our wrong-minded beliefs so that the truth can take their place, this is what we are learning. But this is hardly the end. We don’t just become better humans and live a happier life in bodies. We go past this to return to our true natures as divine and eternal beings. But we don’t learn to be what we are. When we are ready, God takes this final step in our return.

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Nothing Is Outside Us

C-4.6. This is the shift that true perception brings: What was projected out is seen within, and there forgiveness lets it disappear.

Nothing is so miraculous in its effects as being aware that the world is actually only in the mind. There is nothing outside us because we are in God and there is nothing but God. So where could the world be except within us, within our mind. This is helpful in awakening and it is also helpful on the level of the illusion. How is it that we can honestly say I forgive if we believe the illusions are real and really happening? How could we honestly love if we are really separate?

Someone I know has a real problem with Trump. She has a hard time seeing him in any way other than his ego personification, one she doesn’t like. As long as she sees only the separated self in him, she will think he is the enemy. If he gets his way, she cannot have what she wants and so she hates him for what he seems to be taking from her. Thinking of him robs her of peace and blocks her awareness of Love’s presence. It also reinforces her belief in guilt.

How does this get resolved? Even when he is no longer president, the problem persists because it is in her mind. All relationships must be healed. Here is the solution that I discovered. I see myself as outside this body watching everything it does, watching as if I were in it, seeing through its eyes, but knowing that I am not that. I look over at Trump or whoever is the current ‘enemy’ and I see his soul hovering over the body known as Trump watching the show along with me. We smile at each other, sharing the lucid moment, loving each other, maybe laughing at the absurdity, reveling in our oneness.

C-5.2. 4 Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? 5 Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. 6 And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions.

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Manual for Teachers, 6.. Is Healing Certain? P 3. 7-14-20

6. IS HEALING CERTAIN? P 3
3 It is not the function of God’s teachers to evaluate the outcome of their gifts. It is merely their function to give them. Once they have done that they have also given the outcome, for that is part of the gift. No one can give if he is concerned with the result of giving. That is a limitation on the giving itself, and neither the giver nor the receiver would have the gift. Trust is an essential part of giving; in fact, it is the part that makes sharing possible, the part that guarantees the giver will not lose, but only gain. Who gives a gift and then remains with it, to be sure it is used as the giver deems appropriate? Such is not giving but imprisoning.

If I pray for someone and then watch them to see if they have accepted my prayer, I am not offering a true prayer because my concern is an expression of doubt, and healing is an expression of faith. I’m learning a lot about healing as I study the Manual for Teachers, and also from my recent study of The Song of Prayer. I feel comfortable with this particular section.

I know that time is an illusion and so what difference does it make when a prayer is accepted? Another thing I have learned is that it is an error to think that the physical or material healing is the goal. It is the mindset that is the cause of the effect in the world that needs correction. I know that healing is real so it is never lost, and only increases. I also know that it is not my job to evaluate the outcome of the healing, or to keep an eye on the patient to be sure they accept my gift.  I no longer have an interest in holding the patient hostage to my expectations.

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