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Gentle Healing Lesson 159, Manual for Teachers, Text.  8-20-19

LESSON 159
I give the miracles I have received.

“To give is how to recognize you have received. It is the proof that what you have is yours.”

“You understand that you are healed when you give healing. You accept forgiveness as accomplished in yourself when you forgive. You recognize your brother as yourself, and thus do you perceive that you are whole.”

Throughout the Course, and very much in this lesson, it is emphasized that we must see our brother as he was created, not as he appears in his story. This is essential for our salvation. We cannot go home without him. Within our mind are all miracles and we are to give them in order to receive them. Clearly, from this lesson we can see that giving and receiving are simultaneous.

“Christ’s vision is a miracle.”
Here is what Jesus tells us about Christ’s vision.

It reflects eternal love and the rebirth of the love that has been obscured.

It is like Heaven and can be mirrored here.

It pictures Heaven’s innocence.

It is the miracle in which all miracles are born, being their source.

It is the bond that unites giver and receiver.

It sees no sin and it sees the sinless as one.

It is the bridge between the worlds.

It is the Holy Spirit’s single gift.

It seems to me that Christ’s vision is merely seeing what is perhaps not Reality, but what represents reality while still here in time. This is possible for all of us. When I read the following, I was reminded of Cate Grieves relating to me exactly this as her experience. “And in its power can you safely trust to carry you from this world into one made holy by forgiveness. Things which seem quite solid here are merely shadows there; transparent, faintly seen, at times forgot, and never able to obscure the light that shines beyond them.”

“Christ’s vision is the holy ground in which the lilies of forgiveness set their roots.”
Again, in these words I am reminded of what Cate told me of her awakening. She knew little of teachers and various paths to understand awakening. What she knew was that forgiveness was essential. All grievances had to be forgiven and so this is what she did. We all have within us the capacity to forgive, and forgiveness is the way we give and receive miracles. The miracle is the gift of Christ to the world and they are rooted in forgiveness.

“Behold the store of miracles set out for you to give. Are you not worth the gift, when God appointed it be given you? Judge not God’s Son, but follow in the way He has established. Christ has dreamed the dream of a forgiven world. It is His gift, whereby a sweet transition can be made from death to life; from hopelessness to hope. Let us an instant dream with Him. His dream awakens us to truth. His vision gives the means for a return to our unlost and everlasting sanctity in God.”

I am touched by that last paragraph and feel an urge to join Christ in His vision. I want to spend today dreaming of a forgiven world. As soon as I felt this desire, I was aware of the ego’s objections. How could I even dream of a healed world where there is so much divisiveness, so much cruelty, where the news was everyday a litany of man’s selfishness and hatred? And yet, I know that this world is the illusion and Christ’s vision is the way we awaken to truth. I am willing to ask for His vision each time I am confronted with the dark stories of the separated mind.

Manual for Teachers
5. How Is Healing Accomplished?

M-5 what is meaningful to me in this section
The most important thing I learned from this section is that if I am sick it is because I have chosen sickness. Sickness shows me that I have chosen to believe in guilt and that I think punishment follows guilt. I see that I believe that in choosing to punish myself through sickness that I have proven my strength by overcoming the Will of God, which is always health.

Further, “5 If he is healed, he is responsible for his thoughts. 6 And if he is responsible for his thoughts, he will be killed to prove to him how weak and pitiful he is. 7 But if he chooses death himself, his weakness is his strength.”
I see how in a weird and sick way, the ego-mind sees this as reasonable and logical. But it is based on the belief that guilt is real and that I am separate from God and that have a will separate from God’s Will, and that we exist in competition with each other. The premise is wrong so the logic is wrong. In order to heal, I must accept this.

When I recognize the insanity of the ego perspective, I can begin to think differently. I will no longer see value in sickness once I accept my union with God and so recognize that my will must be the same as His. In fact, the idea of me and God doesn’t even make sense. How could there be two of us if we are one with each other and since we are One, there is no reason for guilt to exist and so there is no reason that sickness would exist. If I continue to experience sickness in the body or in my relationships or anywhere else in this story of Myron it would mean that I still resist union with God and there is more healing that needs to occur.

Of course, I must also accept that the body is neutral and is not a decision-maker. For me to experience anything I must make a decision for it and so sickness in the body is not about the body at all, but about what I want. Sickness comes from the mind wherever it is showing up. This is a hard thing to accept for new students of the Course and even once the concept is accepted, there can remain a lot of resistance even if it is not acknowledged. How does one know there is still resistance in the mind to the truth? If there is sickness in the body there is resistance to this concept. It may have been understood but it has not been fully accepted. Isn’t the body a handy mirror to the mind?

How about once illness has manifested in the body? What then? What I have done is to accept that I still think there is some value in sickness, that it is somehow a show of strength against God, even if it is to assume what I think is God’s prerogative and punish myself before He can. It’s hard for me to even write this it is so unreasonable. If there is sickness in the body it is because there is guilt in the mind. And so, the first thing I would do is to release the belief in guilt. If I can’t find guilt in my mind, I would become willing to find it if it is there. I would ask the Holy Spirit to show me the belief in guilt.

Since the mind is responsible for the sickness and so the mind is what needs to be healed, does that mean I should not take medicine? Would taking medicine prevent me from doing the mind healing work? My experience is that it does not affect my mind healing and maybe that is because I know that the only reason medicine works is because I choose it as a way of expressing my desire to heal.

We must not forget how very powerful our mind is. As is emphasized throughout the Course, particularly in Lesson 152, nothing occurs that is not our wish and nothing is absent from our life that we want. I take medicine if that is what I need now. I also know that it is a bit of magic I allow myself until I no longer need it. As it says in this section: “12 The patient could merely rise up without their aid and say, “I have no use for this.” 13 There is no form of sickness that would not be cured at once.” Of course, to say this without believing it to be true is not going to give the expected result.

This paragraph is so important to me that I quote it in its entirety.
M-5.II.3. “What is the single requisite for this shift in perception? 2 It is simply this; the recognition that sickness is of the mind, and has nothing to do with the body. 3 What does this recognition “cost”? 4 It costs the whole world you see, for the world will never again appear to rule the mind. 5 For with this recognition is responsibility placed where it belongs; not with the world, but on him who looks on the world and sees it as it is not. 6 He looks on what he chooses to see. 7 No more and no less. 8 The world does nothing to him. 9 He only thought it did. 10 Nor does he do anything to the world, because he was mistaken about what it is. 11 Herein is the release from guilt and sickness both, for they are one. 12 Yet to accept this release, the insignificance of the body must be an acceptable idea.”

I have talked about sickness being of the mind. Now let me talk about what it cost me to accept that this is true. I will have to give up the idea of being a victim of the world. No more blaming germs or viruses, or bad genes for sickness. I have to let God off the hook, too. I have to accept that I but do it to myself. I have to accept the power of my mind and accept that through that power I make the world as I see it.

There is another way to see the world, another world to see. It is a forgiven world, what Jesus calls the real world. I cannot see it if I continue to project hate and jealousy and fear and guilt on the world. If I want to be free of suffering of every kind, I must give this up. In other words, I must give up everything I have ever believed and I must accept the truth in its place. I must withdraw my projections and accept full responsibility for the world as I made it and as I see it. I must accept that the world does nothing to me and I must accept that what I believe, even if that belief is in error, is real to me.

Now I see creation differently. I understand God and my Self differently. Everything changes once I give up the belief in guilt and withdraw my projections from the world. “6 The final outcome of this lesson is the remembrance of God.” I am not at the final outcome, but I have released enough confusion from my mind that I see things differently than I ever have before. As I continue to grow into and past this first level of awakening, more confusion falls away. I wonder how this will express in the world?

When there is no value seen in sickness, suffering and death, they must cease to exist. Of course, that will happen. “7 What do guilt and sickness, pain, disaster and all suffering mean now? 8 Having no purpose, they are gone. 9 And with them also go all the effects they seemed to cause. “Jesus says that cause and effect replicate creation and so when there is no belief in guilt there will be no effects of guilt. I wonder what it is in my mind that I am still holding onto? I am excited to be shown.

So, what is my part as a teacher of God? Of course, the healing of my own mind is paramount. But when it comes to being the teacher it is not my responsibility to change the patient’s mind for him. When I first began my work with some very sick people, it was hard on me. I thought it was my job to heal them, mind and body, but when I realized the error in that belief, it all became easy and rewarding. My whole job is to represent a different choice. This is why my first responsibility is to my own healing. As Jesus says, my only function is to accept the Atonement for myself. Then I will have something to offer. I will represent a different choice.

“7 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.” This is what I do to the best of my ability at this time. I just remind people of the truth. I show them with my life what it is like to live in the truth. See how easy and joyful it is now that I understand my responsibility? It doesn’t matter what disease they have or how ‘serious’ it seems to be.

Its purpose is the same whether it is a headache or a brain tumor, and purpose is everything. So, one disease is the same as another for the purposes of healing. The job of the teacher is to help the patient remember he did not create himself and so he cannot change himself. He must remain as God created Him. Anything not of God is an illusion and illusions cannot affect reality.

6 The truth in their minds reaches out to the truth in the minds of their brothers, so that illusions are not reinforced. 7 They are thus brought to truth; truth is not brought to them. 8 So are they dispelled, not by the will of another, but by the union of the one Will with itself. 9 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.

What I understand now is that healing the body is not my function, but healing the mind that believes in sickness is my function. What has been healed can no longer manifest the unhealed. If a cause is gone so are the effects. Sometimes the sickness in the body shows us that our mind is in need of healing and so we do that. When we had a fever, we realized it meant we were sick and so we did what was necessary with doctors and medicine. Now we may still do that, but we also realize that more is needed if we want to truly heal. Now we need to heal the source of the problem, our mind. It might be that we have to get to the point that suffering is so intense that we are motivated to do the mind healing work needed. Either way, the work will eventually get done. Why not do it before the suffering intensifies? Why not do it for the sake of Love?

Text
This is from the Obstacles to Peace section of the Course.
“The dedication to death and to its sovereignty is but the solemn vow, the promise made in secret to the ego never to lift this veil, not to approach it nor even to suspect it is there. This is the secret bargain made with the ego to keep what lies beyond the veil forever blotted out and unremembered. Here is your promise never to allow union to call you out of separation; the great amnesia in which the memory of God seems quite forgotten; the cleavage of you Self from you;-the fear of God, the final step in your dissociation.”

Well, we are breaking that contract, aren’t we? We who are studying the Course and who have dedicated our lives to undoing the ego, have taken the first step, and maybe many steps toward lifting the veil. The way we are doing this is through forgiveness. It is the only way to do it. The lifting of the veil must be done in union and union cannot occur where there is fear and guilt.

“But first, lift up your eyes and look on your brother in innocence born of complete forgiveness of his illusions, and through the eyes of faith that sees the not.”

He tells us that we fear God because we fear our brother, and that no one reaches love with fear beside him. He says this:
“Brother, you need forgiveness of your brother, for you will share in madness or in Heaven together. And you will raise your eyes in faith together, or not at all.”

The course I am taking right now is called Remembering to Choose Peace, and one of the things it says in summary of this section is this:
“Jesus wants us to understand that we will receive the gift of innocence we give our brother. When we join together with our brother instead of separating, we are able to go beyond the darkest veil – the fear of God. We are asked to watch very carefully how we are seeing our brother – through the eyes of guilt or innocence, because we will always give as we receive and receive as we give.”

I sometimes have a brief moment in which I feel affected by someone’s words or actions. But that passes quickly because I am fully accepting of forgiveness. Forgiveness is always justified. I don’t really care why it is justified, I just know it is. I suppose that if I had to give a reason it would be that none of this is real and that everyone is living a specific script for a specific reason.

I can’t judge their script because I don’t know why it is what it is, and I’m not interested in judging it. I don’t walk out of a movie angry with a character who acted a certain way, and this experience I am having now is absolutely no different than a movie I watch on the screen. It just makes no sense to judge a movie even if I imagine myself in it. I don’t know why I chose the script for this lifetime for myself and so I am no longer judging myself for my part in it. That is quite a relief.

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