Together, We Light the Way

Click link to go to:
Previous Article • Next Article
Together We Light the Way Index

Gentle Healing Lesson 135, Manual for Teachers, Text.  5-2-19

LESSON 135
If I defend myself I am attacked.

“And herein lies the folly of defense; it gives illusions full reality, and then attempts to handle them as real. It adds illusions to illusions, thus making correction doubly difficult. And it is this you do when you attempt to plan the future, activate the past, or organize the present as you wish.”

“A healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own.”

I have known for a while now that I am not to make plans on my own. I know that I can ask for guidance in all things and receive it. I mostly do this, but not perfectly. Sometimes I use the ego mind to make my decisions and when I do this it is always based on what I know from past experiences. I do it because I feel threatened and I want to defend myself.

Here is an example of this. One year I didn’t have as much money to spend on Christmas as I have had in the past. I made some elaborate plans to compensate. It started at the beginning of the year. I put aside money in different ways and in different places. I planned ways to earn more money. I looked for bargains.

I warned my family ahead of time so they wouldn’t be surprised by the few gifts under the tree. I bought some things during the year a gift at a time when I had extra money. I used my credit card. I hoped for some extra money coming at Christmas as it sometimes does. All these plans were based on what I have learned from and experienced in the past.

All these plans were to defend me from disappointment and from disappointing others. It was all done to organize my Christmas in a way that suited me. Even the need for Christmas to be this way is based on the past in which as a child my parents love for me was expressed most fully as a big Christmas. I see that I defend myself from lack of love by organizing the present through activating the past and planning for the future.

“For no one walks the world in armature but must have terror striking at his heart.”

“Defense is frightening. It stems from fear, increasing fear as each defense is made.“

Clearly, the belief that I need all these defenses to have love and to give love only reinforce the fear that I lack love. It reinforces the fear that love can be lost. And it tells me that love can be bought and must be bought. By judging the present on the basis of the past, I don’t leave an opening for new information.

Perhaps love is different than I think. Perhaps it does not need my defense, but how would I know if I only believe what I learned in the past. And this situation that Christmas is just one of the ways that I defend and, in my defense, close my mind to the truth that is God’s gift to me.

“The body is in need of no defense. This cannot be too often emphasized. It will be strong and healthy if the mind does not abuse it by assigning it to roles it cannot fill, to purposes beyond its scope, and to exalted aims which it cannot accomplish. Such attempts, ridiculous yet deeply cherished, are the sources for the many mad attacks you make upon it. For it seems to fail your hopes, your needs, your values and your dreams.”

What are those purposes and roles the body cannot fill? What purpose do we give it that it cannot accomplish? When I identify with the body and think of it as myself, I use it in that way. It is then used to show the world I am worthy of love and admiration. It is clothed to say “Look at me, how wealthy I am or how fit I am, how good looking I am.”  “Look at what this body does, how kind and generous it is, how smart it is, how powerful and in control it is.” We are saying, look at my body, look at me.

It is not the body that I am. It is not the body’s job to fill these perceived needs for me. This is all in my mind and it is the mind that says I need these things and the mind that believes the body is failing me. Giving the body these purposes, I must then defend it against anything that interferes with those purposes.

I give it vitamins and exercise. I read articles on how to keep the brain working well. I dress it up and spend time with my hair stylist. I feed it properly and only the right amount. Actually, I don’t do many of those things anymore, but that is only because I have, for the most part, come to understand that the body is a neutral vehicle for navigating the world and for communicating love. All else is done with the mind and if I don’t like what is done, it is not the body that needs attention, but my thoughts.

As Jesus tells us, The “self” that needs protection is not real. The body, valueless and hardly worth the least defense, need merely be perceived as quite apart from you, and it becomes a healthy, serviceable instrument through which the mind can operate until its usefulness is over. Who would want to keep it when its usefulness is done? Knowing this it makes the whole process we go through in defending the body ridiculous.

Now here is something I don’t always consider. Jesus says that if we defend the body we have attacked our mind. We won’t see the body and mind as separate and what we see as weakness in the body we will see as coming from a mind that is limited and fragile. We will believe that not only are bodies separate from each other and from Source but so is the mind. When we let these thoughts be healed, the body will respond with health. We allow our minds to be healed and we will no longer look outside the mind for protection and healing of the body.

“What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good? Perhaps you have misunderstood His plan, for He would never offer pain to you. But your defenses did not let you see His loving blessing shine in every step you ever took. While you made plans for death, He led you gently to eternal life.”

This is one of my favorite passages in the Course. The more surrendered I become the gentler the lessons. I do see His guiding hand in every aspect of my life. I trust this Guidance explicitly. There are still times in which I go off on my own, but as soon as I notice I have done so, I return my mind to God and let Him decide for me. I look forward in happy anticipation to the day in which my surrender is complete and I know my Self without any beliefs of the ego obscuring my sight.

I choose to continue my inward looking, not at my thoughts, but at the presence within. Today, I will begin that practice with this thought which is a variation on the thought that I want to know myself.

“If I defend myself I am attacked. But in defenselessness I will be strong, and I will learn what my defenses hide.”

Regina’s Tips
Today’s lesson is about Self-inquiry, ‘Who am I?’ And then it is about taking Self-inquiry one-step further by living from the answer.

My Thoughts
This is why I have added to my schedule the daily meditation asking to know my Self. Whatever is given me in that time, I live. I may not hear anything specifically, but what I notice is that I do things differently, I am not as obsessed with certain ideas that used to plague me, I follow directions without question when my heart leads me in an unexpected way.

Regina
Today’s lesson tells us that we use many forms of defense to try to protect who we think we are, and in so doing we hide the truth about ourselves from ourselves. We try to protect the body, because we think we are the body. We try to protect the psyche, because we think we are the psyche. Yet we are neither.

My thoughts
This is the core of the lesson, I think. When we defend who we think we are, there is no way for us to discover who we really are. It might not seem such a big deal that we spend a lot of time on the body, but what that means, that is, our motivation for doing so might be moving us more deeply into the ego. As Regina points out this lesson is not about ignoring the needs of the body, but it is about obsessive thinking about the body and its needs. I will add it is also about using the body to get what we think we need from others, like attention, approval and love.

Another thing Regina talks about is the difference between reasonable planning and planning in an attempt to control future outcomes. I have a day planner that I must use. It helps me remember when I have a student calling so that I am here and prepared. That is normal and helpful planning. If, however, I have hidden motives in using this planner, such as do I think that if I lost my planner this would be devasting?

Do I think the planner represents my worth as a teacher and as a human being, the blank spaces meaning that I am not doing enough or doing it well enough? Do I try to get students so I can fill up all the spaces and so feel good about myself? Or do I simply accept that as Jesus tells us in the Manual for Teachers that our students are waiting for us and so there is nothing to plan, no effort to make in order to be a teacher of God? Do I know that who shows up for what is out of my hands an in more capable hands, and means nothing about a personal “me?”

Manual for Teachers
I do hear the Voice for God, though not perfectly. I do share what I hear, but again, not perfectly.  I have always appreciated my teachers. These are God’s messengers who hear more clearly and share more precisely than I do. I have always had a teacher, someone who was a few steps ahead of me, someone whose steps I could follow. Not someone who is way ahead of me because then I would not understand the words she gave me, but far enough that she could lead me to my next level of understanding.

If I had no teacher in form, I would still get there, but not as quickly. The support that a good teacher provides has also been important to me. My teachers have not only gently guided me back on track when I temporarily lost my way; they have also reassured me when I was uncertain. They have not told me what I needed to do or believe, but have reminded me of the truth that is always available to me. They put the truth before me to accept or reject. If fear was too strong in me at that time, they left it there for when I was ready.

I have met many teachers over the years and sometimes I met teachers I couldn’t work with. That does not mean there is anything wrong with them, but only that they were not for me. This is why there are many teachers. The ones that are for us will be brought into our sphere. Jesus tells us that as teachers our students are waiting for us. This applies both ways. As students, our teachers are available to us when we are ready for them. It is in this way, teacher to student and student to teacher that we find our way home together.

Text
“When I said that the Holy Spirit’s function is to sort out the true from the false in your mind, I meant that He has the power to look into what you have hidden and recognize the Will of God there. His recognition of this Will can make it real to you because He is in your mind, and therefore He is your reality. If, then, His perception of your mind brings its reality to you, He is helping you to remember what you are.” T-9.I.4

Oh my! Do you see what Jesus is saying here? In my mind is the truth, in my mind is my true will, the Will of God, and as I am willing to accept His help, the Holy Spirit looks with me and I see it, too. Because the Holy Spirit is in my mind, I become aware of my true will which is the Will of God. The only thing standing between my awareness of the truth and the separated will of ego is the fear that knowing my Self is a loss.

When I think of salvation in these terms, it all seems so simple and so accessible. I hear the Voice for God very clearly and I hear it every day so I am convinced that the Holy Spirit is in my mind. Now Jesus is telling me that all He has to do to bring me to full awareness is to look into what I have hidden and recognize the Will of God there. It feels so close and so possible when I think of this. I’ve cried three times just writing this.

So this is what has been happening in my practice! I look at the thoughts and feelings that seem to make up my life and I invite the Holy Spirit to look with me. To the degree I am willing to be known, the Holy Spirit finds God there and shows It to me. I feel like a blind woman whose sight is beginning to return. Or maybe like an insane person who is coming out of her psychosis.

I have been doing exactly what I need to be doing, and I never gave thought to the miracle that is occurring. It was just a practice, and yes, it was changing everything so it was the best practice in the world, but never did I realize the true significance of that practice. It just seemed too simple to be this important.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

<< Back to main page of Together, We Light the Way

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.