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Manual for Teachers, 6.. Is Healing Certain? P 1. 7-1-20

6. IS HEALING CERTAIN?
1 Healing is always certain. It is impossible to let illusions be brought to truth and keep the illusions. Truth demonstrates illusions have no value. The teacher of God has seen the correction of his errors in the mind of the patient, recognizing it for what it is. Having accepted the Atonement for himself, he has also accepted it for the patient. Yet what if the patient uses sickness as a way of life, believing healing is the way to death? When this is so, a sudden healing might precipitate intense depression, and a sense of loss so deep that the patient might even try to destroy himself. Having nothing to live for, he may ask for death. Healing must wait, for his protection. 

I’m glad that Jesus begins by assuring us that healing is always certain, because appearances used to cause me to doubt the healing, and I’m sure others have felt the same way. When I read this the first time it was like a light bulb coming on. I saw how true it is that sometimes people are not ready for healing. I talked about the healing I accepted to be free of allergies. More than once I have listened to people talking about how bad their allergies are and how they suffer for them.

I tell them about my experience and wait for their reaction. A few of them are very excited and ask for a name and phone number, and some of those have later thanked me because now they, too, are allergy-free. Most of them listen to my story (after all, good manners insist we give the other person equal time) and then they go right back to their story of suffering. They love their story and want to keep it. I understand this because I, too, have had favorite stories of suffering.

Why do we hold onto the stories of suffering when we could be free of them? I think we tell our stories so often that we have come to believe we are these stories, and to give them up is to give up our very selves, our identity. I think that the stories are where we hide from God, and to give them up is to become naked before God and that is very frightening for us because we misunderstand the nature of God and fear punishment for our “sin” of separation.

Sometimes the suffering becomes unbearable and we seek relief through death. Sometimes it becomes unbearable and we allow temporary relief, only to take up a different story of suffering as protection from God. And then, sometimes, we begin to change our minds. We begin to allow the light of truth to shine in our minds, and start to doubt the ego story of a fearful God. We are finally ready to accept the gift of healing that has been offered to us.

Like most of the steps I have taken while awakening, this one has not been clear-cut. I have had moments of great clarity and have received remarkable healings of both mind and body. But they did not transfer to every part of my life, and I stepped forward, only to retreat into fear, then move forward again. But no matter how often I did this little dance, I always moved forward with more certainty than before.

Right now, I have a re-occurrence of the bronchial infection I had recently and I also suffer from severe acid reflux. I have decided it is time to ask for true healing rather than simply accepting a magic solution for a magical problem. I’ve looked at the value I have placed in sickness and also at the hidden reasons for sickness. Somehow, I have overlooked something because the problems persist. So, I am remaining open and receptive to guidance and look forward to further enlightenment. Each time I think about the issues, I remind myself that I have no use for this.

One other thing that jumped out at me as I read this was this:

The teacher of God has seen the correction of his errors in the mind of the patient, recognizing it for what it is. Having accepted the Atonement for himself, he has also accepted it for the patient.

You may be familiar with Dr. Hew Lin and his use of the Hawaiian healing practice of Ho’oponopono. Dr. Hew Lin healed an entire ward of criminally insane patients without ever seeing any of them. He simply read their files and forgave himself for what he was seeing.

While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal. When he was asked about how this was accomplished, he said, “I was simply healing the part of me that created them.” The Course tells us that our only job is to accept the Atonement for ourselves. The way we heal others is to accept healing for ourselves.

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Insights on Defenselessness

So much is going on in the world right now that I have many opportunities to see where I might think I need to defend myself. I was watching the protest in my hometown. I watched on Facebook. It was lovely and the people remarking on it said really nice things. Then I read about and hear about protests that turned violent or I read remarks from people who are taking sides and speaking from their fear and I feel myself tense. Even that small reaction is a red flag. Let me go look at what is going on in my own mind that I wanted to cringe away from my brother. I really don’t want to defend this illusory world anymore. I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of another story. Catching these things before they can become fixed in my mind helps me avoid that.

I remind myself that this feeling of being separate and having different agendas is just an illusion. In reality, there is no separation. There is just God. I am God and each of these other seemingly different individuals are just God and the seeming space between us is God. With that reminder, I can now look at the situation differently. I can see it as a reflection in the confused and split mind, thoughts being projected outward as if there was some place they could be except in the mind of God.

I ask, what is this for? The ego says it is for being right, for drama, for fear and guilt, for projecting blame. I ask the Holy Spirit, and the answer is exactly the opposite. It is for me to experience the effects of seeing differences where there is only sameness. If I do this, I can see decide if I want to continue to hold onto the beliefs that caused the upset, or if I am willing to see their lack of value and let them go.

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Manual for Teachers, III. The Function of the Teacher of God, P 1-3. 6-25-20

III. The Function of the Teacher of God
1 If the patient must change his mind in order to be healed, what does the teacher of God do? Can he change the patient’s mind for him? Certainly not. For those already willing to change their minds he has no function except to rejoice with them, for they have become teachers of God with him. He has, however, a more specific function for those who do not understand what healing is. These patients do not realize they have chosen sickness. On the contrary, they believe that sickness has chosen them. Nor are they open-minded on this point. The body tells them what to do and they obey. They have no idea how insane this concept is. If they even suspected it, they would be healed. Yet they suspect nothing. To them the separation is quite real.

2 To them God’s teachers come, to represent another choice which they had forgotten. The simple presence of a teacher of God is a reminder. His thoughts ask for the right to question what the patient has accepted as true. As God’s messengers, His teachers are the symbols of salvation. They ask the patient for forgiveness for God’s Son in his own Name. They stand for the Alternative. With God’s Word in their minds they come in benediction, not to heal the sick but to remind them of the remedy God has already given them. It is not their hands that heal. It is not their voice that speaks the Word of God. They merely give what has been given them. Very gently they call to their brothers to turn away from death. Behold, you Son of God, what life can offer you. Would you choose sickness in place of this? 

3 Not once do the advanced teachers of God consider the forms of sickness in which their brother believes. To do this is to forget that all of them have the same purpose, and therefore are not really different. They seek for God’s Voice in this brother who would so deceive himself as to believe God’s Son can suffer. And they remind him that he did not make himself, and must remain as God created him. They recognize illusions can have no effect. The truth in their minds reaches out to the truth in the minds of their brothers, so that illusions are not reinforced. They are thus brought to truth; truth is not brought to them. So are they dispelled, not by the will of another, but by the One Will with itself. And this is the function of God’s teachers; to see no will as separate from their own, nor theirs as separate from God’s.

In these three paragraphs on healing, Jesus explains the roll of the Teacher of God in facilitating the healing of his brother. In healing, the body is not involved in any way, not the patient’s body nor the healer’s body. In fact, not even words are needed. Healing is achieved mind to mind, or more accurately within the mind since there is truly no gap between our minds.

What about doctors, medicine, laying of hands, moving of energy and all forms of healing? Do they have no place in this? Jesus has said previously that special agents seem to be ministering to him, yet they but give form to his own choice. Sometimes we are unable to make that leap from sickness to health in one bound, as it would cause too much fear. I think that all these forms have nothing to do with the actual healing, but may be helpful symbols for the patient.

The actual healing itself is a beautiful process. First the teacher of God must be healed in his own mind of the idea of sickness having any value. He must be healed of the idea of degrees of sickness, and all belief that sickness has anything to do with the body. It is the absolute certainty, the complete honesty (consistency) in the teacher’s mind that is healing because it reminds, mind to mind, the patient of the truth.

My experience has been that this can be done in a moment of clarity. In that moment there is no confusion in the mind of the teacher. Perhaps this clarity will not yet be permanent, but will be greatly reinforced as she offers herself for this purpose.

My heart is touched by the gentleness of healing. The healer is a symbol of the truth, the representative of another choice; he stands for the Alternative to the confusion that exists in the patient’s mind. Jesus says that the teacher’s thoughts ask for the right to question what the patient has accepted as true. Very gently they call to their brothers to turn away from death. Words are not even necessary, the call is within the mind.

This reminds me of how the Holy Spirit works with me. He doesn’t demand or force, or impinge on my choices in any way. He remains perfectly consistent and perfectly unaffected by my illusions, and this unwavering steadfastness to truth draws me to Itself. He is my memory of God, and who can resist that memory?

The certainty of the Teacher of God shares this function as he is the memory of health, the truth in his mind lighting the way for the one who has temporarily forgotten who he is. Faith that his light will ignite the light that exists in his brother, the teacher of God is patient and waits without fear for acceptance of this gift. Isn’t it a beautiful thing to see how the attributes of God’s teachers come together in this way?

Jesus says that his teachers come, not to heal the sick, but as a benediction. Of course! His teacher’s do not believe in sickness! What is there to heal? As they remain unaffected by the appearance of sickness they are not reinforcing illusion, but are strengthening the truth in their brother’s mind. “And this is the function of God’s teachers; to see no will as separate from their own, nor theirs as separate from God’s.”

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The god of Sickness

“You can give up the god of sickness for your brothers; in fact, you would have to do so if you give him up for yourself. For if you see the god of sickness anywhere, you have accepted him. And if you accept him you will bow down and worship him, because he was made as God’s replacement. He is the belief that you can choose which god is real.”

This is so clear! Ok, where in my life do I have the opportunity to give up the God of sickness for my brothers? When I think about my dear friend being depressed and an addict, I am worshipping the god of sickness and increasing my belief in it and this affects us all, including my friend. This is my motivation for releasing this worry.

I see that it is the belief in the god of sickness and I would give it up. So when I notice worry thoughts about my friend, I remember that this is not what I want to keep in my mind and not what I want to reinforce within our shared mind. I ask the Holy Spirit to show me another way to see this.

This works in all cases such as it did when I had a temporary cash-flow problem. Here is what I wrote at that time.
When I was worried about my financial situation, I recognized this as just another sick thought no different than the thought that the body could suffer. Both stemmed from the belief in lack and loss. I knew immediately that I did not have any use for the belief in lack and that I would be helping all of us if I released that thought. When I let it go, I had an inspiration about things I could do in the world to correct the situation. The correction required faith and patience but I can do faith and patience.

Correcting the symbol, that is the loss of money, was the effect of correcting the belief that manifested as the financial problem. It is important to remember that there really is only one problem and one solution. That solution when applied and accepted not only frees the mind to hear the inspiration that corrects the symbol of loss, but it helps to heal the mind of that belief so that another symbol does not so easily rise to take its place. These are just two examples but it is the same for all idols that I make to take the place of Universal Love.

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To Heal Is to Remember God. 6-21-20

T-12.II.1. Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth. 2 If to love oneself is to heal oneself, those who are sick do not love themselves. 3 Therefore, they are asking for the love that would heal them, but which they are denying to themselves. 4 If they knew the truth about themselves they could not be sick. 5 The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth. 6 The sick must heal themselves, for the truth is in them. 7 Yet having obscured it, the light in another mind must shine into theirs because that light is theirs.

T-12.II.2. The light in them shines as brightly regardless of the density of the fog that obscures it. 2 If you give no power to the fog to obscure the light, it has none. 3 For it has power only if the Son of God gives power to it. 4 He must himself withdraw that power, remembering that all power is of God. 5 You can remember this for all the Sonship. 6 Do not allow your brother not to remember, for his forgetfulness is yours. 7 But your remembering is his, for God cannot be remembered alone. 8 This is what you have forgotten. 9 To perceive the healing of your brother as the healing of yourself is thus the way to remember God. 10 For you forgot your brothers with Him, and God’s Answer to your forgetting is but the way to remember.

Paragraph 1 tells me that sickness is a lack of love, that if we knew who we were we could not be sick. “The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth.” So if my son is sick in mind or body and I believe in his sickness and worry about him and try to fix him, I am reinforcing his error that he is not loveable/ is not love.

But if I refuse to believe in his sickness and only believe in his real Self, then I help him heal himself. And yes, the one who is sick must heal himself because he has the truth in him, but if that truth is obscured to him, then our task is to shine a light into their mind. And here is something that is very important: Jesus says that it works because that light is theirs. So, the light in my mind is the light in their mind. The light I shine is the certainty of who we are.

The second paragraph talks about the fog in our mind. The reason we need light is that the light has been obscured. The fog that obscures that light is simply wrong-minded thinking. It is ego beliefs that leave us lost and confused. Sometimes when I forget the truth, it does feel exactly like I am trying to see through a heavy fog.

But the light (the truth) penetrates the fog without regard to how dense it might seem because the fog has no power unless we give it power. We must withdraw that power remembering that God has all power, is all power. Our job is to remember this for all the Sonship. So, if my son expresses his concern that he is looking for a job in a depressed job market and I believe he has a valid point, then we are both looking at the situation through the fog of ego thinking.

The more we believe that idea, the stronger it becomes in our minds and in everyone’s mind throughout the Sonship. However, if I remember who we are as the Sons of God, I lessen any power that thought has for both of us and for all of the Sonship. Jesus says, “Do not allow your brother not to remember, for his forgetfulness is yours.”

If I then tell him that the job market is not relevant to him and that there are always positions that need filling and that his talents will be recognized and valued, this is one way of shining a light that obscures the fog for him. Saying the words is not necessary, but sometimes helpful. There may be different words for different people and different circumstances and the Holy Spirit will provide them if they are needed.

The reason that words are not necessarily needed is this: But your remembering is his, for God cannot be remembered alone. I remember the truth, that is, I remember God and our place in God, and the truth (God) is strengthened in him. Jesus says this is what we have forgotten. It is all-important that we remember it now. How we think, what we believe, reverberates throughout the Sonship. We together forgot God and now we together remember Him.

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Manual for Teachers, Shift in Perception. P 4 6-20-20

II. The Shift in Perception, P 4

4 With this idea is pain forever gone. But with this idea goes also all confusion about creation. Does not this follow of necessity? Place cause and effect in their true sequence in one respect, and the learning will generalize and transform the world. The transfer value of one true idea has no end or limit. The final outcome of this lesson is the remembrance of God. What do guilt and sickness, pain, disaster and all suffering mean now? Having no purpose, they are gone. And with them also go all the effects they seemed to cause. Cause and effect but replicate creation. Seen in their proper perspective, without distortion and without fear, they re-establish Heaven.

Accepting that all of manifestation begins in the mind will change everything. It requires the undoing of the belief in guilt or else we would be unwilling to take full responsibility for all things in our life. But once done, Jesus tells us that there will be an end to suffering because these untrue thoughts will have no purpose. I can see that in my own life, not as a complete accomplishment but enough for it to feel miraculous and enough to strengthen the desire to look for and release any remaining thoughts that lead to suffering.

I absolutely take responsibility for everything in life. I take responsibility for all things that occur in my personal life and all things that occur in life itself. I started with the behaviors and reactions in my life story that caused harm. In the beginning, I did what everyone does, I blamed others. Slowly, as I was able, I began taking responsibility, acknowledging that nothing could occur without my desire for it to do so. (Lesson 152) And at some point, I began looking for root cause so that I could find the hidden desires that were the cause of many of these decisions. Having found them, I forgave them and released them to the Holy Spirit.

I also began to realize that anything in my awareness was there so that I could heal it through the same process. It was no longer personal, just something to be healed for us all. I realized that it doesn’t matter where in the Sonship something is healed because we all benefit from the healing. I also realized that I played a part in those seemingly not personal experiences such as weather events, earthquakes, wars. I began to look in my own mind for the causes, the desire for chaos and for conflict. Additionally, there is the reality that much of what happens here is the result of the combined consciousness. However it shows up, the cause is in the mind and the effects are what we see and experience through our bodies and not the other way around.

Seen in their proper perspective, without distortion and without fear, they re-establish Heaven.
Without guilt distorting everything, we can all look within for the cause of the world we see, accept responsibility, and allow the mind to be healed. The world we will experience once this is completed will be lovely, indeed. I am interested in the idea that we will re-establish Heaven. I think he probably means that first there will be the real world, a world without our projections of fear and guilt, a world that reflects only love. Then, the world will disappear entirely and we will merge into God. Maybe that is what he means by re-establishing Heaven. It will be re-established in our Mind.

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Suffering

Suffering
I am always aware that any distress on my part is caused by my thoughts about the situation or person. There is never an exception to this. The ego questions this and relies on physical pain to prove the point. But even physical pain is not proof against this fact.

When I am in pain, for instance, when I put my inured foot down wrong or too hard and I feel pain in it, if I am thinking that it shouldn’t be happening or what does it mean and what will happen because of it, I suffer. But if I just feel the pain and have no thoughts about it, the pain comes and goes and I don’t suffer, I just feel pain.

The other day, I had a really bad headache and this hardly ever happens anymore. I was surprised by it and wondered what caused it and why now? But then, I got on with my day and stopped thinking about it and I was fine. The next day the headache was gone and I wondered briefly what that was all about but then I let the thoughts go. Without thoughts, there is no suffering. This is an amazing discovery, really.

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