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Gentle Healing Lesson 141, Manual for Teachers, Text.  5-13-19

LESSON 141
My mind holds only what I think with God.

(121) Forgiveness is the key to happiness.

(122) Forgiveness offers everything I want.

I went into silence and waited. The first thing I was given was the reminder that I have been worried about my son. I believe that my son is suffering and if I believe in his suffering then I must also believe I suffer. I waited to hear what was next.

Forgiveness is the key to happiness and it offers everything I want, so I forgive the belief in suffering. I was given this:

If my son’s sad story is true then everyone’s sad story is true and the world is real.

But, forgiveness is the key to happiness and forgiveness is everything I want.

I forgive the belief that the world is real. If the world is not real, then my son’s story is not real. My son is safe.

I release the story of my son to the Holy Spirit. I don’t want it anymore. My mind holds only what I think with God. This is a fact, all else is self-deception.

I waited to hear what was next.

Oh, I forgive the belief in the world. Only forgiveness will bring me happiness. The world never will. If I believe in the world, I believe in suffering.  I release this belief to the Holy Spirit. It is a self-deception that cannot take the place of truth.

The ego cannot accept that this is all there is to the process. It wants to keep trying to make things change, to at least concentrate hard on the idea. But I know from experience that I have only one part in this process, that is, to let go of what does not bring peace, that is, to forgive. Job done.

Regina’s Tips
The dictionary defines ‘think’ as “to have a conscious mind” or “to have in consciousness.”

Therefore, “My mind holds only what I think with God” means that anything we are conscious of that is not truth is temporary. Only truth is lasting. And it is this simple fact that sets the stage for the contemplation of every lesson that we will review over the next ten days.

Sometimes A Course in Miracles uses the term “real thoughts” to refer to the thoughts we think with God. Real thoughts are the environment of pure consciousness. You can think of them as attitudes or ways of being.

Real thoughts include:

~ All-is-well (peace)
~ Open embracing acceptance (love)
~ An inherent sense freedom—a sense of soaring from within (joy)
~ Intimacy with everything (oneness).

Patience, allowance and compassion are the reflections of our real thoughts.

So, “My mind holds only what I think with God” means that only these qualities are lasting. Everything else that appears in consciousness is temporary and passing.

My Thoughts

Yes, even as I contemplate the idea of forgiving my belief in suffering and in the world, I experience peace, and love. I feel free and joyful. I experience intimacy with everything. I walked into my bedroom to fold some clothes and I loved my bedroom. I had to smile. There is nothing about my bedroom that evokes those feelings. It is simply that I am still feeling oneness with everything and so my bedroom brings me joy as does everything else. Oneness brings joy. I think of my son and I feel this same joy and heart-soaring love. I pray to never lose sight of the forgiven world. May I be aware only of what I think with God.

Manual for Teachers
13. WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE? P 5
5 What is the real meaning of sacrifice? It is the cost of believing in illusions. It is the price that must be paid for the denial of truth. There is no pleasure of the world that does not demand this, for otherwise the pleasure would be seen as pain, and no one asks for pain if he recognizes it. It is the idea of sacrifice that makes him blind. He does not see what he is asking for. And so he seeks it in a thousand ways and in a thousand places, each time believing it is there, and each time disappointed in the end. “Seek but do not find” remains this world’s stern decree, and no one who pursues the world’s goal can do otherwise.

Journal

“Seek but do not find” is going to occur if I pursue the world’s goals. I don’t need to be convinced of that as I have spent most of my life trying to make that work. It doesn’t. No matter what I try for and how close I come to achieving it, I am left dissatisfied. The world says I need to have lots of money, many friends, relationships that give me what I want, health, beauty, travel, and on and on. I’ve had a lot of what the world offers and I have had times when there was not enough. Either way, I was left wanting.

Nothing changed until I found A Course in Miracles and stopped listening to the ego tell me what it was that I needed to achieve in the world. Now I use the world to help me awaken. I find satisfaction in releasing guilt and happiness in extending love. I have stopped judging everything that happens and simply accept it as perfect. After all, everything is in my best interests, and if I make that assumption, I begin to see the value and to appreciate the circumstances rather than to fight them. Giving up the goals of the world is no sacrifice at all.

Text

C 28: V. 2: 4-7

Where fear has gone there love must come, because there are but these alternatives. Where one appears, the other disappears. And which you share becomes the only one you have. You have the one that you accept, because it is the only one you wish to have.

What came clear to me is that fear is a choice. I don’t have to feel it, and if I do feel it, I can choose otherwise. All it takes is vigilance and willingness. I notice I feel anxious or worried and I ask myself what I was thinking that triggered those feelings in me. Then I realize that the thoughts that appear in my mind are harmless to me unless I choose to believe them.

If a thought is causing me discomfort, it cannot be a thought of God and so it does not belong in my holy mind. I can ask the Holy Spirit to remove it for me and if I am truly done with it, the belief in that thought is gone. It is a miracle. If I am not done with it, I go back and do it again. I have had thoughts that I valued too much to give up right away no matter how much discomfort they cause, but I have never had a thought I refused to give up eventually.

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