Together, We Light the Way

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Study of Text, C 14: XI. The Test of Truth, P 3. 8-4-17

XI. The Test of Truth, P 3
3 Atonement teaches you how to escape forever from everything that you have taught yourself in the past, by showing you only what you are now. Learning has been accomplished before its effects are manifest. Learning is therefore in the past, but its influence determines the present by giving it whatever meaning it holds for you. Your learning gives the present no meaning at all. Nothing you have ever learned can help you understand the present, or teach you how to undo the past. Your past is what you have taught yourself. Let it all go. Do not attempt to understand any event or anything or anyone in its “light,” for the darkness in which you try to see can only obscure. Put no confidence at all in darkness to illuminate your understanding, for if you do you contradict the light, and thereby think you see the darkness. Yet darkness cannot be seen, for it is nothing more than a condition in which seeing becomes impossible.

Journal
I think that Jesus is telling me that I have taught myself badly in the past and that I need to let that all go. I didn’t learn anything then that will help me eliminate the darkness in my mind. I have to agree that this is true. It is different now. I have learned that I have a Teacher and He will show me what the problem is, and then He will show me the answer.

In the past, if I had a problem, I would try to figure out how to fix it. I would think about what seemed to work in the past and what didn’t work. I might read a book by an expert or ask someone who should know. Using the thinking mind to work things out is the same thing as asking the ego what the situation means and how to manipulate it to give me the results I am looking for in light of my understanding of the problem.

The reason this doesn’t work most of the time is that I asked the ego to define the problem. Now I might be working on the right problem, but the chances are I am not. For instance, my ex-husband is an alcoholic. He would make decisions while in a drunken state which led to problems. I asked the ego (or as I thought of it then, I used common sense) to figure out what the problem was and what to do about it.

Based on this ‘common sense’, it seemed obvious to me that his drinking was the reason I was so upset, so fearful and angry, and the solution was that he should stop. I worked out in my mind how to get him to do that. I used reason, and threats, and pleading, and of course, guilt. Nothing worked, and eventually, I left him thinking that this was the final solution. It wasn’t. We had a son together and so our lives are still interconnected and I had to revisit the whole problem again recently.

This time when I had to deal with him and with his alcoholism, it was very different. He was drinking at a very inappropriate time, and in a way that could be harmful to others. Because of our connection through our son, it was now in my life. At first, I was appalled and angry by his actions. But that didn’t last long, only a few minutes, really.

The reason I didn’t stay angry is that I realized that I had judged him, and this happened because I fell back on old methods of dealing with problems, probably because this was an old problem. But as soon as I saw what was happening, I changed my mind. I stopped asking the ego what the situation meant, and I asked the Holy Spirit instead.

It became very clear and obvious to me that I had no reason to expect anything else from him. He is living the story of an alcoholic and unless the alcoholic has managed their disease, then the alcoholic drinks. I realized that there was no reason for me to be angry and upset about it. I didn’t feel like judging him, and I never mentioned anything about it. My daughter and I figured out what to do about the situation to make it better and we did it.

There was only one reason the two situations were so different. In the first, I was confused about the problem. I was upset and afraid and I used the ego thinking mind to come to the conclusion that my husband was the problem. In the second, I was upset and afraid and I used the Holy Spirit to come to the conclusion that my reaction to this situation was a choice I was making, and I was the problem.

This was good, because, while I cannot change him, I absolutely can change me. I did just that as I saw that I didn’t have to react in fear and anger. I reacted from love and acceptance instead. My mind was clear and I received inspiration on how to deal with it. This is why I don’t use the darkened mind to bring light to any situation. It can’t.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: XI. The Test of Truth, P 2. 8-3-17

XI. The Test of Truth, P 2
2 Be willing, then, for all of it to be undone, and be glad that you are not bound to it forever. For you have taught yourself how to imprison the Son of God, a lesson so unthinkable that only the insane, in deepest sleep, could even dream of it. Can God learn how not to be God? And can His Son, given all power by Him, learn to be powerless? What have you taught yourself that you can possibly prefer to keep, in place of what you have and what you are?

Journal
Jesus spends a lot of time in the Course helping us understand that it is not possible that we are what we think we have made of ourselves. He wants us to know that it is not possible we could be less than what God is. We are created like God in every way; that’s what it means to be an extension of God. To think we can be powerless is insane. We have been given all power, and even in dreams, we are not without that power however we might misuse it.

I have had an interesting life. Parts of it have been exciting and fun and parts have been dangerous, and other parts of it have been awful. I can’t say that I just glided through life, that’s for sure. I often wonder how I would have seen the rest of my life if I had not found A Course in Miracles. Honestly, I cannot imagine how people deal with life without it. I think I would have probably taken my own life had I not found it.

Right now I sometimes feel such joy and peace and sometimes I spend a lot of time crying. It’s all good. It’s all necessary. Our lives are not at random. We decide our path in every moment as we make decisions either with Holy Spirit or with ego. I don’t waste any of it. I love the happy peaceful moments and enjoy them fully.

I also fully experience the anger and fear and guilt when it comes up. I am learning not to block any of it, and, in doing so, I am choosing to make different decisions that lead to joy rather than to fear. This is my way out and I am glad I am not bound to this illusion forever. I’m so grateful that I am something that I did not make and I am ready to remember what that is.

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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: XI. The Test of Truth, P 1. 8-1-17

XI. The Test of Truth, P 1
1 Yet the essential thing is learning that you do not know. Knowledge is power, and all power is of God. You who have tried to keep power for yourself have “lost” it. You still have the power, but you have interposed so much between it and your awareness of it that you cannot use it. Everything you have taught yourself has made your power more and more obscure to you. You know not what it is, nor where. You have made a semblance of power and a show of strength so pitiful that it must fail you. For power is not a seeming strength, and truth is beyond semblance of any kind. Yet all that stands between you and the power of God in you is but your learning of the false, and of your attempts to undo the true.

Journal
I don’t know. I don’t know what anything is for and I don’t know what anything means, and I don’t want to try to figure it out for myself. That has been my problem in the past. I judge what things mean using only my ego mind and this judgment closes me off from any real knowledge. It is like all the information I have gathered with the thinking mind is stacked up like bricks making a wall. The power of God, true Knowledge, is on the other side of that wall, where it seems to be out of reach.

The only way to have Knowledge is to take down that wall of self-achievement. I begin by acknowledging that my hard won ‘knowledge’ is useless. It is meaningless and of very limited helpful. The ego strongly opposes this outlook, but not because these bits of information are actually useful, but because they represent the ego’s value to me. Without the belief that the ego has value, why would I want to keep it? When I lose interest in the ego, it is gone.

The ego argues that I need this information in order to survive here. But this isn’t true. I can actually do quite well without the ego knowledge I have accumulated. What I have discovered is that when I let go of the idea that I know, I become open to Holy Spirit and He guides me to what I need to know, to say and to do.

This view that I don’t need to find answers myself, but can simply receive whatever I need to know through open-hearted listening is radically different from what I have believed to be true. It is also far more valuable than anything the ego could offer. The only way to prove this to yourself is to do it.

It isn’t hard. Just put your day in His hands and ask Him what to do next, what to say, where to go. Then do what occurs to you to do. At first, you will make mistakes, listening to the ego rather than Holy Spirit. And you will probably experience some resistance to this, maybe a lot. But as you continue to practice surrender, you will experience an amazing lightness and freedom. I am reminded that Jesus advised us that before we do anything to ask him if our choice is in accord with his. If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: X. The Equality of Miracles, P 12. 7-31-17

X. The Equality of Miracles, P 12
12 The miracle is the recognition that this is true. Where there is love, your brother must give it to you because of what it is. But where there is a call for love, you must give it because of what you are. Earlier I said this course will teach you how to remember what you are, restoring to you your Identity. We have already learned that this Identity is shared. The miracle becomes the means of sharing It. By supplying your Identity wherever It is not recognized, you will recognize It. And God Himself, Who wills to be with His Son forever, will bless each recognition of His Son with all the Love He holds for him. Nor will the power of all His Love be absent from any miracle you offer to His Son. How, then, can there be any order of difficulty among them?

Journal
In the previous paragraph, Jesus said this. “Let the Holy Spirit show him to you, and teach you both his love and his call for love. Neither his mind nor yours holds more than these two orders of thought.” Now he is reminding us that we are love. When our brother is in his right mind, he is giving us love because that is what he is. And when he is not in his right mind, he is asking for love, which we can give him because it is what we are.

Through this process, we remember our true Identity as love. I mentioned before that someone I care about was angry with me. The first impulse, coming from ego, is to defend against this anger. But as I reconsider, the love that I am surfaces in my awareness, and I recognize her anger as a call for love, which I answer.

Each time I make that choice, I become more fully aware of myself as love, and I am that much less likely to forget my Identity. It is helpful to my friend as well. If I defended against her, I would be teaching her that she is a threat and so not loved. By loving her, I help her to recognize that she is love, too. Each time the choice for love is made, the result is a miracle. Each miracle is equal because each one is equally blessed by the power of God’s Love.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: X. The Equality of Miracles, P 11. 7-27-17

X. The Equality of Miracles, P 11
11 As God communicates to the Holy Spirit in you, so does the Holy Spirit translate His communications through you, so you can understand them. God has no secret communications, for everything of Him is perfectly open and freely accessible to all, being for all. Nothing lives in secret, and what you would hide from the Holy Spirit is nothing. Every interpretation you would lay upon a brother is senseless. Let the Holy Spirit show him to you, and teach you both his love and his call for love. Neither his mind nor yours holds more than these two orders of thought.

Journal
I often have the experience of learning as I teach. In fact, when I am given a new idea or greater clarity, I deliberately teach it right away. I want to make it mine. I want to understand what was given to me so I pass it along. As I am sharing, inevitably more comes. It is exactly as Jesus is telling us in this paragraph. As God communicates to the Holy Spirit in you, so does the Holy Spirit translate His communications through you, so you can understand them. What is given me is meant for everyone so I share it everywhere he would have me share, and my own understanding grows with each sharing.

The second thing he is telling me is that I must hide nothing from the Holy Spirit. When I ask the ego for an interpretation, I am hiding it from the Holy Spirit. This includes what I would think of my brother. Would I ask the ego to interpret my brother? As Jesus says elsewhere in the Course (T 20: III, 7) Ask not this transient stranger, “What am I?” He is the only thing in all the universe that does not know.” I don’t want to ask the ego anything about my brothers. Let me always turn to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to teach me my brother’s love and his call for love.

Recently, someone who means a lot to me became angry with me. I hear the ego offering me its interpretation of this situation. It insists that it is unfair and unreasonable for this person to be angry with me. The ego wants me to retaliate, or if I won’t go for that, it wants me to defend myself. It sounds reasonable if judged from the ego’s perspective. But I keep asking the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit keeps showing me this being of Love who in her pain is calling for love. What could I do but answer?

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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