LESSON 150
My mind holds only what I think with God.
(139) I will accept Atonement for myself.
(140) Only salvation can be said to cure.
There is only one way out of this virtual reality, and that is to know the Self. That is salvation and that is accepting the Atonement. I cannot do this for anyone else, only for myself. However, in doing it for myself, I affect all others through the one mind. I continue to remain open to the Self, the Holy Spirit that I am. In doing so, there is a change, subtle at the moment, but definitely a change occurring in my mind.
In doing this, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances in my life, something little, something insignificant, something that seems big and important. It’s all the same, and anyway, it is never about what it seems to be about. Each circumstance is only an image of a belief in the mind. If someone in my life seems to disapprove of me, that is just an image of the belief that I am not worthy and that sense of unworthiness is the effect of feeling separate from God.
If I accept the Atonement for the situation in which I seemed to have been dissed by a friend and recognize that there is nothing to forgive because nothing happened, I am accepting the Atonement for the belief that I could be other than God and someplace outside God. I accept the Atonement for both beliefs because they are the same belief. My Self has no belief in unworthiness, cannot imagine unworthiness. Accepting the Atonement is knowing that I am my Self and knowing nothing but worthiness.
One of the challenges of the body I made for this foray into the virtual reality of time and space is that I seemed to have programmed into it a tendency to gain weight. This tendency has created many opportunities for me to evolve spiritually as I learned to see the body differently and to recognize through the body issues my hidden desires such as to be a victim. It continues to be a teaching device.
One of the most upsetting things about the relationship I have developed with this body is that it seems at times to be in charge. Here is what that looks like. I seem to get a craving for something sweet and even though I tell myself I am not giving in to those cravings, I often do.
Then I am left feeling like I am weak and vulnerable to my body desires and that I can’t do anything about it. This feels frightening. If I cannot even control my sugar addiction how can I expect to succeed at anything else? It is an ego story that I must love because I tell it all the time. I tell it to others and I tell it to myself.
When I decided to act as if I am my Self even when I don’t feel like I know my Self, I ran up against this old story. So, I am watching TV and I decide I want something to eat, something sweet if I can find it in my house. I can’t, so I eat something salty. But it’s not satisfying, so then I find myself on my feet going back to the kitchen. I watch this behavior a couple of more times as it repeats itself. I place my awareness on it and on the thoughts that drive it. I look with interest and with curiosity.
I am aware that I can say no to feeding the ego appetites in all its forms. I am also aware that I don’t want to say no. After watching it a while, I realize that I no longer want to eat anything. I also notice that at first when this eating desire and fulfillment occurred, I felt like I was giving in to something out of my control and so I felt uneasy.
Later as I merely observed what I was choosing to do without concern about the choice, the uneasiness was gone. It was like watching someone else making choices. It was not someone else exactly. It was my ego construct. My excellent discovery is that this construct is still mine and I still make choices for it and I can choose from my higher Self if I want to.
I am not a victim and I am not out of control. I am controlling it all the time. It is just that sometimes I make the choice with my higher mind and sometimes my lower mind and thus sometimes I am satisfied with my choice and sometimes I regret it. Always, my choices have something to teach me if I care to learn.
Choosing to eat for some reason other than to nourish the body doesn’t seem like a big deal in the scheme of things, but within everything, there is an opportunity for salvation, an opportunity to accept the Atonement and to awaken more fully to my Self. This experiment with placing my awareness where I wanted it and doing so without judgment wasn’t really about whether or not to eat. It was the opportunity to come a step closer to knowing my Self as Awareness.
Manual for Teachers
Through the study of Manual for Teachers I have been given clarity about death. What I understand now (and this is something I feel to my core) is that Jesus meant what he said, there is no death. How can death exist if God does? It is not possible. God is Life, God is Love, and it is not possible that God could have an opposite. The belief in an opposite of God is the ego at its essence and the ego is not real. It is the belief in the ego that we are here to undo. I will not be distracted by the imagined effects that we think of as our world and our life. The truth lies just beneath that, and the truth is, death has never occurred.
Death is just another imagined attack. I have tried to protect myself against it. I have tried to out-maneuver it. I have projected blame onto innocent people and innocent circumstances. I imagined death and then blamed God as the cause. Then I defended God with all sorts of convoluted reasoning because the belief that God was attacking me was too painfully fearful to bear. I have been fighting an illusion, a mirage, a thought form. Nothing is there. I am the Son of God, I am eternal, and death is just another false idea borne of unfounded guilt.
Text
The Course talks about the Father and son, and of the Will of the Father and the Son as being the same, and it speaks of a perfect creation of a Perfect Creator. I think of it this way. The Father creates through extending Himself, so the Son is an extension of the Father. The Son, in His turn, creates through extending Himself so that His creation is an extension of Himself and a further extension of God. It is Perfection creating more Perfection, which creates more Perfection, without end.
Now I see myself dreaming I am outside of this perfection. I see myself using my power of creation to make imperfect things rather than creating perfectly. I have placed limits on creation through my decision to experience something else. I have forgotten how to return to the flow of Perfection and even that I want to do so.
But Perfection does not leave a question unanswered, so the Holy Spirit was placed in my mind. Its function is to wait patiently for the son to ask for His Father, then It answers with Love and Peace and Comfort and guides us out of the wilderness of our imagination. As we answer our holy function, the perfection of Creation continues without interruption.
© Copyright 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.
Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution in support of this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution or become a member online, go to http://www.pathwaysoflight.org/polshop/home.php?cat=254.
Or send a check or money order to Pathways of Light, 6 Oak Court, Ormond Beach, FL 32174-2623 (USD only, please) Thank you for your support.