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Chapter 16: The Forgiveness of Illusions, I. True Empathy, P 2. 1-16-20

I. True Empathy P 2
T-16.I.2. The clearest proof that empathy as the ego uses it is destructive lies in the fact that it is applied only to certain types of problems and in certain people. 2 These it selects out, and joins with. 3 And it never joins except to strengthen itself. 4 Having identified with what it thinks it understands, the ego sees itself and would increase itself by sharing what is like itself. 5 Make no mistake about this maneuver; the ego always empathizes to weaken, and to weaken is always to attack. 6 You do not know what empathizing means. 7 Yet of this you may be sure; if you will merely sit quietly by and let the Holy Spirit relate through you, you will empathize with strength, and will gain in strength and not in weakness.

Journal
I’m thinking of how I might empathize through the ego. If I am told by a friend that her mother died and I feel a pang of loss myself and share that feeling of loss with her, perhaps talking about my own loss, that would be empathizing with the ego. I would be forming a special relationship, bonding through loss and pain, which would weaken us both.

So, how might I express true empathy? Perhaps, I would tell her I am sorry to hear that, and ask her when it happened so that she would feel invited to talk if that is what she needs. Perhaps I would invite her to share stories about her mother, again, so that she will feel invited to talk about her mom. I would remain open to Spirit to know what is needed and what would be truly helpful, strengthening us both.

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Chapter 16: The Forgiveness of Illusions, I. True Empathy. 1-16-20

Chapter 16: The Forgiveness of Illusions
I. True Empathy
T-16.I.1. To empathize does not mean to join in suffering, for that is what you must refuse to understand. 2 That is the ego’s interpretation of empathy, and is always used to form a special relationship in which the suffering is shared. 3 The capacity to empathize is very useful to the Holy Spirit, provided you let Him use it in His way. 4 His way is very different. 5 He does not understand suffering, and would have you teach it is not understandable. 6 When He relates through you, He does not relate through your ego to another ego. 7 He does not join in pain, understanding that healing pain is not accomplished by delusional attempts to enter into it, and lighten it by sharing the delusion.

Journal
I used to think that empathy was to relate to the problem and to express that to the person who had the problem. For instance, if someone lost a loved one, I would agree with them how very hard this is and I would cry with them because their grief triggered my fear of loss.  I catch myself doing this very thing sometimes even now that I know better. I am always surprised at myself when I choose to form a special relationship through shared suffering. In doing this, I would be strengthening the belief in suffering for both of us. That is just plain crazy.

The question becomes, how do I relate to someone who is suffering? It would seem cruel not to respond at all and I’m not foolish enough to believe this is the time and place to talk to them about illusions. The solution is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in my mind and will give me the words to say if I ask and then pause long enough to receive them. I sometimes do funerals and, of course, I go to funerals, more of them than before now that I am older. So, it is important to me that I follow Holy Spirit’s guidance.

When I am talking to a Course student, it is a little different. My assumption when a fellow student comes to me with a problem, they are hoping to receive some guidance from Holy Spirit through me. I will speak to them differently than I do with someone else but, again, I ask first so that what I share will be helpful. I do feel empathy in both cases because I have both grieved and been confused.

If I feel more than empathy, if I feel sympathy or a desire to share their suffering, I give it to the Holy Spirit and then I ask for words to share with the one in front of me. If I need to revisit the issue later, I do that when I am alone. One of the things I have noticed is that with grief, sometimes all that is required of me is a hug. And with other problems sometimes all that is needed from me is a listening ear. The important thing for me to remember is that my part is to be there, to be open and receptive. Knowing what to say or do is the Holy Spirit’s part.

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Text XI. Christmas as the End of Sacrifice P 10, Manual for Teachers 4. Trust.2. 1-6-20

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XI. Christmas as the End of Sacrifice P 10
T-15.XI.10. This is the time in which a new year will soon be born from the time of Christ. 2 I have perfect faith in you to do all that you would accomplish. 3 Nothing will be lacking, and you will make complete and not destroy. 4 Say, then, to your brother:

5 I give you to the Holy Spirit as part of myself.
6 I know that you will be released, unless I want to use you to imprison myself.
7 In the name of my freedom I choose your release, because I recognize that we will be released together.

8 So will the year begin in joy and freedom. 9 There is much to do, and we have been long delayed. 10 Accept the holy instant as this year is born, and take your place, so long left unfulfilled, in the Great Awakening. 11 Make this year different by making it all the same. 12 And let all your relationships be made holy for you. 13 This is our will. 14 Amen.

Journal
What a wonderful way to end the year! What a plan for 2020! I am determined that this is the year I will have. Actually, I just expect that this is the year I will have. I am taking my place in the Great Awakening. I am certain that all my relationships will be made holy for me. I know I will do my part. I gladly release my brothers and accept my own release. I can’t imagine anything else occurring. This is, indeed, our will.

Right now, I can’t imagine holding anyone prisoner to my grievances, but if that were to occur, I have this perfect prayer of release and I appreciate Jesus for this gift. What has helped me to get to where I am now, to be at peace and to feel the love of God in me and moving through me, was to live this process without exception. Sure, I had grievances and there were people and situations that I judged. I judged myself as harshly as I did anyone else. But I never kept the judgment. I kept going to Holy Spirit and asking for a healed mind.

I did it as often as I needed to. I learned not to feel guilty for the dark thoughts in my mind, and, instead, I learned to feel grateful that I found them so that I could be corrected. I made the peace of God my only goal, and I never made an exception when it came to forgiveness. Everyone is forgiven and everyone is innocent. That is how I discovered that I am forgiven and I am innocent. What a life this has been. I am so grateful.

Manual for Teachers
A. Development of Trust, P 2
2 Next, the teacher of God must go through “a period of sorting out.” This is always somewhat difficult because, having learned that the changes in his life are always helpful, he must now decide all things on the basis of whether they increase the helpfulness or hamper it. He will find that many, if not most of the things he valued before will merely hinder his ability to transfer what he has learned to new situations as they arise. Because he has valued what is really valueless, he will not generalize the lesson for fear of loss and sacrifice. It takes great learning to understand that all things, events, encounters and circumstances are helpful. It is only to the extent to which they are helpful that any degree of reality should be accorded them in this world of illusion. The word “value” can apply to nothing else.

For me, the period of sorting out was mostly me arguing for what I wanted to keep. The hardest thing for me to relinquish was the desire to project blame. I really thought I needed this and that it was of great value to me. I didn’t put it in those words of course but I would argue that circumstances proved that it was clearly someone else’s fault and so, in this case, I was the victim.

My ex-husband was a heavy drinker and would often go out with his buddies and not come back until the early hours. I would not know where he was or if he was ok. I would imagine him driving drunk and getting into a wreck, maybe leaving the road and hitting a tree, sitting injured in the car unable to help himself. Many a night I lay awake playing out this nightmare in my imagination.

I would go through all the scenarios in my head and also through all the emotions. I would be afraid for him, afraid for us if he was injured or died. I would feel resentful and angry, thinking how unfair this was, and how unloving that he would put me through this. I could not see how this could be anything but his fault. I wasn’t the one who was behaving so thoughtlessly and I wasn’t the one who was causing so much grief for his family.

What had to be done to get out of this nightmare of my own making was to look past the apparent circumstances to the truth. He is innocent. I am innocent. No matter what it might look like, and no matter how I might feel, this is the truth. While circumstances shift appearances, our innocence remains the only true and unchanging fact.

From that place of clarity I was able to see that my reluctance to withdraw my projections and accept responsibility for how I felt was the result of thinking that having him to project onto was too valuable to give up. I really wanted my feelings to be caused by his behavior and the circumstances I found myself in. I was as afraid of giving up projecting blame as I would be if asked to look at my own mind, to recognize that it was my thoughts that were hurting me, not his behavior.

I had to go through many such scenarios before I was fully convinced that there is no value in projecting blame. Now the temptation never arises. I know that this story is not my reality and not anyone else’s reality. We are all here living out our scripts as if it is real so that we can look at our beliefs and make a decision as to what we want to continue believing and what we want to release. That is all that’s happening here. There is no way anyone could be guilty of that. It is our purpose.

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Text XI. Christmas as the End of Sacrifice P 9, Manual for Teachers 4. Trust. 1-3-20

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XI. Christmas as the End of Sacrifice P 9

T-15.XI.9. God offers thanks to the holy host who would receive Him, and lets Him enter and abide where He would be. 2 And by your welcome does He welcome you into Himself, for what is contained in you who welcome Him is returned to Him. 3 And we but celebrate His Wholeness as we welcome Him into ourselves. 4 Those who receive the Father are one with Him, being host to Him Who created them. 5 And by allowing Him to enter, the remembrance of the Father enters with Him, and with Him they remember the only relationship they ever had, and ever want to have.

Journal
How wonderful to think of being one with God and to think that this can happen now, at least it will occur according to what is possible here. I’m not sure exactly what this is like. But Jesus says that as we host God, he welcomes us into Him. Since in reality, we are still in God, this must speak to our experience of being in Him. I know that I already feel different. I feel happier and more peaceful and without a lot of interruption in that happiness and peacefulness. And yet, I feel like there is more to this, much more. I look forward to whatever is to come.

I still experience ego thoughts but I seldom believe them even for a brief time, and though I might get distracted by an ego thought, it does not persist. I continue to watch my thoughts and I am alert to guidance. One thing that feels different to me is that it all feels so natural and simple. It doesn’t feel like I have to work at this anymore; rather, it feels like every change simply happens and all I need to do is not prevent it.

I know I feel so much love for Jesus my brother and for God my Father. I also feel loved by God and I don’t doubt that love anymore. And if there is still some doubt or some fear of which I am not consciously aware, I am ready to face that when it is time to do so and let that be undone by the Holy Spirit as He has done with all other obstructions.

Manual for Teachers
4. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S TEACHERS? Trust
2 All differences among the Sons of God are temporary. Nevertheless, in time it can be said that the advanced teachers of God have the following characteristics:

1. Trust

1 This is the foundation on which their ability to fulfil their function rests. Perception is the result of learning. In fact, perception is learning, because cause and effect are never separated. The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. It is governed by a power that is in them but not of them. It is this power that keeps all things safe. It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world. 

When I think about the world as it appears now with so much divisiveness, one could wonder how it is that we are to trust. The world today seems to be a very unsafe place. But that would only be true if I am looking with the ego. There is nothing to trust from the ego point of view, but I am not the ego. I am the Christ and I trust the Christ. I trust that God was not mistaken when He created us. I trust that Jesus was not mistaken when he chose us as his channels. I trust the power of God in us, and I trust that power is Love. I trust the inevitability of the Awakening.

If I see my brother strike out in fear and anger, I trust it is a call for love and that call will be answered. I trust that no matter how great his fear or terrible his rage, Love is his center. I trust that he will finally accept his truth and surrender to love. Nations are just a gathering of my brothers and reflect the same fear as the individuals, but also the same core of Love. I trust the Love they are to be revealed.

I envision each nation as a gathering of individuals who appear dark with just a tiny spark of light in their heart. Scattered among them are God’s teachers glowing brightly and those nearest him, as they are ready, feel their light sputter to life as it is ignited by their teacher. It is just a matter of time that all lights will come to life and where will the darkness go then? I trust Jesus and his plan of Atonement to awaken us to that light that can never be extinguished.

I trust that I can disregard the appearance of the world I see with my eyes. It is just a picture of the confusion in the mind. Behind that confusion is the real world, which could not possibly resemble this illusion in any way. In fact, the real world is the opposite of the world I see in every way. This is the world I trust. And I trust that my illusions of pain, suffering and death can do nothing to affect it.

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Gentle Healing Lesson 181, Text, Manual for Teachers. 12-30-19

Introduction to Lessons 181 - 200
“And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on what impedes your progress still. Experience of what exists beyond defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is denied. It may be there, but you cannot accept its presence. So we now attempt to go past all defenses for a little while each day. No more than this is asked, because no more than this is needed. It will be enough to guarantee the rest will come.”

By this time in the lessons, a lot of work toward sorting out the valuable from the valueless and making a decision to discard what is not valuable has been achieved. But there is more work to be done on this front. Every time I think there is nothing I would not release, I come across another idea that grabs my attention. The difference now is that I am certain I want to find these beliefs and look at them with the Holy Spirit. I am certain that I will release them. And, I never waste time feeling guilty about them anymore.

This happened to me the other day at a group meeting in which forgiveness was the topic of discussion. Someone talked about a relationship that had been completely healed and the situation in the relationship triggered something in me. I had this thought, How could she forgive that?” My next thought was, “Holy cow, where did that come from???” I was, frankly, shocked. I had no idea that thought was in my mind. I honestly cannot remember the last time I had any hesitation to forgive. Finding that thought is like mining for gold and hitting the motherlode.

I have been working on this idea with the Holy Spirit. I have asked to see the source of the issue, looking for the root cause. Again, using the metaphor of mining for gold, I see myself as a prospector with a sieve like in old westerns. I’m bent over the river of my thoughts shaking my sieve, letting most of the mind chatter flow through but catching a few of the more relevant thoughts. Then I pick through them until I put together a picture of the problem with its different elements.

Once that is done, I ask the Holy Spirit for clarity and for direction in how to see this situation differently. Talking to a friend this morning, I am sharing my process with her and she says something that is very helpful and another piece of the puzzle falls into place. I notice a fear thought hiding in my mind, the fear that complete forgiveness will leave me vulnerable. There, finally, is the last piece falling into place. Now, my work is done and I am ready to release the belief as I see it. I release it and my Holy Self takes it from there leaving me with a profound sense of peace.

Regina’s Tips
The introduction to lessons 181 – 200 setup our goals for the next 20 days.

Widen the horizons of our vision
Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
Intensify our motivation for freedom

It is good to pause before beginning lesson 181 to ask ourselves if we will accept these goals as our goals. We are not asked to add these goals to the list of goals that we have already set for ourselves. We are asked to change our minds about our goals. Are we willing to see the goals we had previously set for ourselves as unimportant, and adopt these goals as our only goals now?

My Thoughts
Clearly, I have accepted these goals as my own. I still do the things I need to do in this place of time and space. But none of that is a goal I have. My only goal is to wake up from all belief in this illusion. Everything that helps with this has my highest priority.

LESSON 181
I trust my brothers, who are one with me.

“Trusting your brothers is essential to establishing and holding up your faith in your ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself.”

Jesus starts off by telling us that if we are going to have faith in ourselves, we must have faith in our brothers. If we believe in their limits we will believe in ours, in their sins, we will believe we can sin, too. Lack of faith in them blocks our faith in ourselves. We will not know our Self if we are unwilling to know that they are not their mistakes. To reinforce this, Jesus says this: “Remove your focus on your brother’s sins, and you experience the peace that comes from faith in sinlessness. …For their mistakes, if focused on, are witnesses to sins in you.”

With this in mind we will be spiritually self-centered today. We want to see our brother sinless so that we can become aware of our own sinlessness. Jesus says this: “Therefore, in practicing today, we first let all such little focuses give way to our great need to let our sinlessness become apparent. … We seek for innocence and nothing else. We seek for it with no concern but now.”

I like this focus. I think of someone that I have had a disagreement with in the past. I focus on this person without that past interaction in my mind, nor do I think of anything that could happen in the future. My only concern is my relationship with her right now. Jesus says that I have been dismayed by the depressing and restricting thought that, even if I should succeed, I will inevitably lose my way again.

Then he says this:

5 How could this matter? For the past is gone; the future but imagined. These concerns are but defenses against present change of focus in perception. Nothing more.

What a freeing thought that is! Letting go of any thought of the past or the future feels so right. Without the past, I cannot judge my brother and without the future I cannot judge myself. I can just allow the miracle occur. It is not a lie that my brother is sinless. The lie is that his ego sins are real and have real effects. Without that lie, the truth of his innocence becomes obvious and mirrors my own.

And from Regina: We look neither ahead nor backwards, because there we will find the goals we had previously set. We look straight into the present, because that is where we find awareness-life-presence. It is here right now.

Manual for Teachers
4. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S TEACHERS?
1 The surface traits of God’s teachers are not at all alike. They do not look alike to the body’s eyes, they come from vastly different backgrounds, their experiences of the world vary greatly, and their superficial “personalities” are quite distinct. Nor, at the beginning stages of their functioning as teachers of God, have they as yet acquired the deeper characteristics that will establish them as what they are. God gives special gifts to His teachers, because they have a special role in His plan for Atonement. Their specialness is, of course, only temporary; set in time as a means of leading out of time. These special gifts, born in the holy relationship toward which the teaching-learning situation is geared, become characteristic of all teachers of God who have advanced in their own learning. In this respect they are all alike.

Jesus says God’s teachers don’t look alike and that their personalities are distinct. That caught my attention because when I first started studying the Course, I thought His teachers would be perfect in their outward appearance. I don’t mean looks of course, but I thought they would act like they were already awake, and it was confusing for me when that didn’t happen. In fact, it seems that many of them have lots of personality flaws.

I had to learn to not confuse the messenger with the message, and of course, it was an opportunity to practice forgiveness and look at my desire to judge. I would not be able to take my place among the teachers of God until I let go of this mistaken belief because I would never live up to my own standards and so would never feel worthy.

I used to think that the special gifts Jesus speaks of are things like being able to channel and scribe, or to be good at teaching or maybe to be a good writer. And maybe that is true, I don’t know. But I wonder if Jesus is pointing to something deeper than that when he says this:

These special gifts, born in the holy relationship toward which the teaching-learning situation is geared, become characteristic of all teachers of God who have advanced in their own learning.

I think what he means is that they have taken on the characteristics that he is going to share with us in this section. I’m not suggesting that his teachers are given these characteristics, but that they have achieved them through their own learning.

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XI. Christmas as the End of Sacrifice P 8
T-15.XI.8. Let no despair darken the joy of Christmas, for the time of Christ is meaningless apart from joy. 2 Let us join in celebrating peace by demanding no sacrifice of anyone, for so you offer me the love I offer you. 3 What can be more joyous than to perceive we are deprived of nothing? 4 Such is the message of the time of Christ, which I give you that you may give it and return it to the Father, Who gave it to me. 5 For in the time of Christ communication is restored, and He joins us in the celebration of His Son’s creation.

Journal
I felt like Christmas was indeed the time of Christ this year. It was a joyful time for me, surrounded by loving family, giving and receiving gifts as symbols of our love. There was an instance of a family member misunderstanding something I said, and I was momentarily shocked. But I quickly realized that it was just a projection from his conflicted mind and I let it pass. Before he left, we were both able to laugh at the situation. I am in gratitude that it didn’t disturb the joy in my heart as it once would have. I didn’t feel tempted to demand a sacrifice of him in the form of an apology. I didn’t need him to restore my innocence through a demand that he understand what I meant. I trusted that love would heal all wounds.

It does make me think about communication. Jesus tells us that in the time of Christ (which is not just at Christmas, of course) communication is restored. If I had needed to hash this problem out, it might have worked or it might have created a greater rift in the relationship. That is the problem with communicating with words and with personal need driving the attempt at communication. The intention of love and acceptance and knowing the innocence of everyone involved is a form of sharing and joining doesn’t hold the possibility of more misunderstandings. It is much closer to true communication.

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Gentle Healing Lesson 180, Text, Manual for Teachers. 12-23-19

Gentle Healing Lesson 180

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

1 (169) By grace I live. By grace I am released.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

2 (170) There is no cruelty in God and none in me.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real. P 2

All of the study and practice that make up my life are the way I prepare for grace, the way I prepare my mind to accept this gift. But neither the study nor the practice transforms my mind. No amount of logical thinking can show me a world without fear. It is the grace of God that does this for me. How else could I ever see this world as it truly exists except by accepting the Love of God right here, right now, in this world of time and space, right in the midst of separation with all its fearful effects.

Manual for Teachers
3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 5
5 The third level of teaching occurs in relationships, which, once they are formed, are lifelong. These are teaching-learning situations in which each person is given a chosen learning partner who presents him with unlimited opportunities for learning. These relationships are generally few, because their existence implies that those involved have reached a stage simultaneously in which the teaching-learning balance is actually perfect. This does not mean that they necessarily recognize this; in fact, they generally do not. They may even be quite hostile to each other for some time, and perhaps for life. Yet should they decide to learn it, the perfect lesson is before them and can be learned. And if they decide to learn that lesson, they become the saviors of the teachers who falter and may even seem to fail. No teacher of God can fail to find the Help he needs.

Like many people, my lifelong relationships have been with family. I have a different relationship with each of them and while overall, they are good, sometimes the relationships have been challenging. My relationships with my children have offered me the richest opportunities for healing and I am grateful for that even though at times it has been painful. As Jesus indicates, the perfect teaching relationships are not always the most comfortable. One good thing about your children is that you can’t divorce them so you have to find a way to release any grievances and guilt.

They may even be quite hostile to each other for some time, and perhaps for life.

When I read this sentence, I thought of my maternal grandparents. This was the relationship they had. There was a lot of hostility between them for as long as I knew them. They lived in a time, though, where divorce was uncommon, and I know my grandmother would never be able to take care of herself even if she would ever consider divorce.

At one time, I might have thought that it was sad to be stuck in a relationship that was not happy and loving. Now though, I see that it was a perfect relationship for what they came to work on. Jesus tells us that everything is in our best interests and what I have seen is that the situation can be something we want, but sometimes it is simply something we need. They had the relationship they needed.

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XI. Christmas as the End of Sacrifice P 7

T-15.XI.7. In the holy instant the condition of love is met, for minds are joined without the body’s interference, and where there is communication there is peace. 2 The Prince of Peace was born to re-establish the condition of love by teaching that communication remains unbroken even if the body is destroyed, provided that you see not the body as the necessary means of communication. 3 And if you understand this lesson, you will realize that to sacrifice the body is to sacrifice nothing, and communication, which must be of the mind, cannot be sacrificed. 4 Where, then, is sacrifice? 5 The lesson I was born to teach, and still would teach to all my brothers, is that sacrifice is nowhere and love is everywhere. 6 For communication embraces everything, and in the peace it re-establishes, love comes of itself.

Journal
One of the reasons we grieve when someone close to us dies is because they feel lost to us at least until we join them. Jesus is reminding us that true communication does not depend on the body. In fact, I am sure that using words is probably the hardest way to communicate since it is so easy to be misunderstood when we talk to each other. I am learning that there is a better way to communicate.

As my mind has healed more and more, I have seen that the love which is naturally communicated when there is nothing blocking its extension needs no words. It is felt by anyone even a little open to it. People I don’t even know respond with a smile as I pass them by. My relationships are more loving without any real change that you can see. I feel a connection to Jesus that is more loving and clearer than ever before. When I do communicate with words, the words that are most helpful just come to me. The only time this type of communication is broken or limited is when my mind becomes preoccupied with the story. This seems to block true communication.

Because the only real use of the body is for communication while we are here and communication mind to mind is limited, loss of the body is not a real sacrifice as we have thought before. I have been experimenting with this. My mom died a few years ago and I have been having conversations with her. I sometimes use words but I don’t hear words from her. What I do experience is love and the love is purer than it was when she was embodied and we had more life stuff blocking the expression of love. While mom was here, our relationship was sometimes difficult and we didn’t always communicate in the best way, but now our relationship is simple and peaceful and more loving than ever. I think this is what Jesus is telling us.

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Gentle Healing Lesson 178, Text, Manual for Teachers. 12-17-19

LESSON 179

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

1 (167) There is one life, and that I share with God.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

2 (168) Your grace is given me. I claim it now.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

My heart goes to the idea of grace. I looked up the meaning in Kenneth Wapnicks glossary. It says this:

Our natural state as spirit, awareness of which returns to us when we complete our lessons of forgiveness; an aspect of God’s Love in this world, past learning for it cannot be taught, but the goal of learning, for all lessons point to its love.

I then looked in the Course itself for meaning.

Grace as it applies to the Atonement

The lamb “taketh away the sins of the world” in the sense that the state of innocence, or grace, is one in which the meaning of the Atonement is perfectly apparent. T-3.I.6

And so, in this reference to grace we are told that the state of innocence is synonymous with grace, and it is our state of innocence (grace) that undoes the idea of sin.

Grace as it applies to forgiveness

The grace of God rests gently on forgiving eyes, and everything they look on speaks of Him to the beholder. T-25. VI.1

This seems to say to me that it is grace that we are able to see with forgiving eyes, grace that speaks of God to the one who looks with forgiving eyes.

Grace as it applies to healing

Grace is not given to a body, but to a mind. And the mind that receives it looks instantly beyond the body, and sees the holy place where it was healed. There is the altar where the grace was given, in which it stands. Do you, then, offer grace and blessing to your brother, for you stand at the same altar where grace was laid for both of you. And be you healed by grace together, that you may heal through faith. T-19. I.13

First, we are to understand that grace is given to heal the mind, not the body. It then tells us that the mind that receives it looks instantly beyond the body. I have noticed that since I stopped asking for the healing of the body, and instead asked for healing of the mind which is the source of either sickness or health, that usually, the healing of the body occurred fairly quickly. That makes sense because if you heal the source you can expect the manifestation to change. Sometimes that does not happen and I think it is probably because of circumstances within the script of which we are not aware. But while we are experiencing the body it seems to matter to us a great deal, in reality, what matters is the healing of the mind.

The next thing we are told about grace in reference to healing is that it is our function here to offer grace to our brother. It is emphasized that we are healed by grace and that this is done together with our brother. Further, he says that healing through grace, we are healed through faith.

Those who are healed become the instruments of healing. Nor does time elapse between the instant they are healed, and all the grace of healing it is given them to give. L 137. 11

Again, we see that healing is by grace, and it is emphasized that it is to be given by those who receive.

Grace and the holy instant

And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. Lesson 169. 12-14

Grace, like the Atonement and miracles are only useful to us while we are still in time. Once grace has blessed us and we are released, it will no longer exist. Jesus says it is the final gift salvation can bestow.

Here is a way I see grace in my life. I had to tell someone something they didn’t want to hear. I felt uneasy long after the situation was resolved. This is not a one-off. I often have this reaction even on things that hardly matter. So, what I needed was a holy instant. I asked for grace to see this differently, not just this one situation, but the idea of fear of confrontation so that no situation causes this for me again.

I sat in silence waiting to see what came up. I was shown my fear of rejection, abandonment, and unworthiness and how that was causing the distress I always feel in any situation that is even a little confrontational. I have already moved past acting on these feelings, but I want to be free of them all together so I asked for more.

I was shown how this is just a repetition of the moment of separation in which I told myself that God had rejected me and abandoned me because my desire for a different experience made me unworthy. I was shown, again (because this is not the first time) how everything here in time is just that one moment repeating over and over in different ways so that we can decide each time whether we want to keep doing this or release those foolish thoughts.

Now that I see the situation clearly and understand why it is happening, and now that I have fully experienced the distress of believing these ideas, I am ready to receive the grace of forgiveness in this holy instant. I can’t think about it past this because thought has nothing to do with grace or healing. I have nothing to do with this part.

There are many other ways in which grace shows up and many ways it applies to our lives. I have to stop now but I am going to continue to look at grace as I am able. This was a profitable use of my time.

Manual for Teachers
3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 4
4 Each teaching-learning situation is maximal in the sense that each person involved will learn the most that he can from the other person at that time. In this sense, and in this sense only, we can speak of levels of teaching. Using the term in this way, the second level of teaching is a more sustained relationship, in which, for a time, two people enter into a fairly intense teaching-learning situation and then appear to separate. As with the first level, these meetings are not accidental, nor is what appears to be the end of the relationship a real end. Again, each has learned the most he can at the time. Yet all who meet will someday meet again, for it is the destiny of all relationships to become holy. God is not mistaken in His Son.

A lot has changed for me since I first wrote about this paragraph, but I am keeping it the same as before because it is a good example of what Jesus is talking about here. Since I wrote it, all these past relationships have been healed.

Hah! Two people enter into a fairly intense teaching-learning situation and then appear to separate. That sounds exactly like my marriages. I was Catholic at the time of my first divorce. The priest said I would no longer be allowed to teach Catechism or receive the sacraments. I was very angry with God for about a year, but I’ve since forgiven Him. ~smile~

I experienced a lot of shame at not being able to sustain a marriage relationship and a lot of guilt. But Jesus tells us here that the relationships we have are deliberate. We don’t just form relationships accidentally and we get as much from the relationship as we are both able to at the time. That is a very comforting thing for me to know. Divorce was not a sin or even a failure. We learned what we could and then we separated, which when put like that, makes perfect sense. Why would we remain together if there was nothing else for us to gain from the relationship?

Jesus also tells us that all relationships are destined to become holy, so these aborted relationships will be fulfilled at some time. A part of my mind is relieved at this. I am here to save the world through forgiveness, and it would be disturbing to think I passed up a chance to do so and now it is too late. But another part of my mind holds the memories of all that went wrong in these relationships and really doesn’t want to go there again.  Holy Spirit, could you speak to me about this?

Holy Spirit: The memories you speak of are the memories of your judgments of what happened. As your mind is healed, the judgments and the desire to judge will fall away, and so will the pain and suffering. Your experience of the situation will be very different, indeed, as you see the one before you as he is rather than as you have thought you needed him to be. You have had some experience with this already, have you not?

Me: Yes, actually I have. I have seen the anger fall away as I forgave my last husband for all I thought he was guilty. I was surprised, too, that as I forgave myself for the mistakes I thought I made, it was simple to forgive him. It seemed a lot of the anger I directed towards him was just the projection of my guilt onto him. When I forgave myself, I didn’t need him to be guilty.

Oh, I see. That is what you mean when you say the experience will be very different when I see him as he is rather than as I thought I needed him to be. I still don’t want to return to that relationship, and there are others that I dread the thought of returning to.

Holy Spirit: Yes, these are the parts of the relationships that remain unforgiven, or to say it differently, that you are still judging. Continue the work you are doing now as you practice forgiveness. When you next meet your brother you will welcome him with a loving heart unburdened by judgment.

Me: This is hard for me to imagine in some cases, but I know this is just a measure of my desire to judge, and judgment is the cause of my fear, not the actual situation or person. I will gladly continue my practice.

Text
XI. Christmas as the End of Sacrifice P 6
T-15.XI.6. So is it that, in all your seeking for love, you seek for sacrifice and find it. 2 Yet you find not love. 3 It is impossible to deny what love is and still recognize it. 4 The meaning of love lies in what you have cast outside yourself, and it has no meaning apart from you. 5 It is what you prefer to keep that has no meaning, while all that you would keep away holds all the meaning of the universe, and holds the universe together in its meaning. 6 Unless the universe were joined in you it would be apart from God, and to be without Him is to be without meaning.

Journal
Everyone wants love but instead of love what we find is sacrifice. This is because we don’t understand love. We think it is about compromise and bargains and loss. Some people become so discouraged that they give up on love thinking love is the problem when it is their thoughts that are causing them distress.

Love is so very different than what we have thought it was. Love is God and God is all there is. Love is what we are and what everything is because nothing is outside of God and that means nothing is outside Love. It is the meaning of the universe and what holds the universe together.

This sentence gave me pause: 6 Unless the universe were joined in you it would be apart from God, and to be without Him is to be without meaning. We are joined with each other and with the universe. Have you ever thought of that? I wonder if the universe as referred to here is different than we see it. Is the universe a collection of planets and stars and moons etc. as we think of it, or is it simply infinite potential that Love forms in whatever way it wants to?

The universe is definitely something and it is joined in us and in God (Love) because otherwise, it would be meaningless, and this tells us that we are in God and so we are meaningful. The next time you think that you are less than keep this in mind. You are in God and nothing in God is less than. You are Love Itself and so you can never be less than. When you think you are without love, remember that you can never be unlovable and can never be outside love. The universe is in you. You are magnificent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g4d-rnhuSg

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