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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.

Text
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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