Lesson 164
Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.
“What time but now can truth be recognized? The present is the only time there is. And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever there; not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ.”
I am one with God. Right now. Not at some later time, am I one with God. Not after I have done something to make this happen, or come to deserve this through effort on my part. The work and effort I put into this is merely to bring me to the point of acceptance. I am already and always have been one with God and so I am That in this present moment. Not through my eyes, but through the eyes of Christ I see this.
“Christ answers for you, echoing your Self, using your voice to give His glad consent; accepting your deliverance for you.”
Jesus says that Christ answers for me, echoing my Self. I am for a moment confused by this. How is Christ and Self different? I think I understand, though. Christ refers to the Sonship as a whole, the entirety of the Sonship. Self is that entirety but also is part of that entirety. So, I can say Self is Christ, but my Self is a part of Christ. The part that is most important, that really matters in this, is that my voice (my Self, evidently, and not my self) must give consent but the Christ will accept my deliverance for me. So my awakening is done by the Christ as my Self gives consent for it.
We will not judge today. We will receive but what is given us from judgment made beyond the world.
We do have a part in this. This part seems to be up to the ‘me’ that I most identify with. For a long time, this meant the self that appears to be residing in the world of time and space in this body. I don’t identify with this self nearly as much, hardly at all, but it is the self I am experiencing and to some degree still identify with.
So Myron practices non-judgment all the time. I am always aware of the tendency to judge both other people and myself, to judge situations, to have preferences because that is a judgment as well. When I notice this, I realize I am not interested in that anymore. I believe that I can stop judging people and myself. I believe that because I see how I have changed in that way. I just don’t have the desire to judge as often as I used to.
Maybe this personality I am using in this incarnation will always have preferences and maybe it will always have a tendency to judge. I don’t know. But I have seen that those judgmental thoughts and desires are lessened and that they don’t impact me the way they used to. I prefer vanilla ice cream over chocolate, but I will eat either or neither without caring very much.
Open the curtain in your practicing by merely letting go all things you think you want.
This is my constant practice. I let go all things I think I want. That brings up a question in my mind. What things do I still want? Those things obstruct what I could have instead, the remembrance of my oneness in God. I want my children to be safe. I want them to live happy lives. I want them to outlive me. The first thought is that there is nothing wrong with wanting this for them. It is the loving thing to do, and how could I want otherwise?
And yet, I have seen that wanting this for anyone is suffering. They have their script to play out and it is not likely to be any different than mine. It will look different, but it will still reflect the unhealed mind and so it will have its share of suffering and it will go where it goes. Wanting it to be different will not make it different and will only cause me suffering.
Knowing this has not completely alleviated the suffering I have experienced because to some degree I resist this knowing. But I am practicing acceptance. I think of something painful that could happen to one of my children and if I follow that thought I find myself in a story and all stories lead to suffering. However, if I have that thought and I am not interested in it, the thought falls away and I have just grown in willingness and understanding. And I can’t ignore the fact that what I want for them doesn’t change what they get so the whole exercise in wanting is a waste and helps no one.
Let not today slip by without the gifts it holds for you receiving your consent and your acceptance. We can change the world, if you acknowledge them. You may not see the value your acceptance gives the world. But this you surely want; you can exchange all suffering for joy this very day.
Text
X. The Time of Rebirth, P 3
3 We who are one cannot give separately. When you are willing to accept our relationship as real, guilt will hold no attraction for you. For in our union you will accept all of our brothers. The gift of union is the only gift that I was born to give. Give it to me, that you may have it. The time of Christ is the time appointed for the gift of freedom, offered to everyone. And by your acceptance of it, you offer it to everyone.
Journal
I suppose that I must have accepted my relationship with Jesus as real since I talk to him all the time and ask him for help and advice when that is needed. I take what he says in the Course very seriously and I strived to meet the goals he has placed before me until I had done so. It sometimes felt difficult but in retrospect, I would always understand it was only my resistance that made it feel hard. And I saw that it was never a sacrifice. He is a good friend, a good elder brother.
Now I look for him everywhere and in everyone, not the human form he took, of course, but the Christ he is. If I don’t see the Christ in someone, I know that I have blinded myself with ego thoughts and judgments, so I ask for correction and I ask for Christ’s Vision. It is a gift that is readily given to me as soon as I truly want it. That is why I ask for correction first. If I keep the judgment, I will not truly want to see differently. I cannot judge and see with Christ’s Vision. I cannot be in union with someone I judge. I cannot be free until I am in union with all. With a mind free of dark thoughts I will naturally seek union and naturally offer it to everyone.
Manual for Teachers
Introduction P 2
M-in.2. To teach is to demonstrate. 2 There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. 3 From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. 4 The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice. 5 The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. 6 You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. 7 Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. 8 It is a method of conversion. 9 This is not done by words alone. 10 Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. 11 No more than that, but also never less.
Jesus begins by telling us that to teach is to demonstrate. I can teach kindness and love and union all day long but if I then live a selfish, fearful life in isolation, I have demonstrated the opposite of my words. This demonstration is more powerful than anything I simply say or write. I cannot demonstrate the characteristics that are in alignment with my true nature simply by believing I should. I have to release the belief that I must defend and attack, judge and hold grievances. As I do this, I am learning to be a teacher of God rather than a teacher of ego.
Jesus emphasizes that we teach and we do so all the time. We cannot avoid teaching because our words, actions and even thoughts are teaching whether we want them to or not. Jesus says we can use the Course to learn to teach what we want to learn. I want to learn love and peace and joy. I want that to be my life, and therefore, that is what I teach as much as I can. If I see myself drawn to a grievance or a desire to defend, I feel it as if it was a sickness and I reject it as quickly as I can because I have learned to be free and I can’t give that up.
10 Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. 11 No more than that, but also never less. This passage intrigues me. My actions and words will reveal what I am rather than what I want people to think I am. I get that because I have experienced it with other people. I have seen Course teachers say one thing but then in unguarded moments they showed me that they didn’t live what they teach. I have done the same thing, I am sure. Sometimes we believe something to be true but we don’t yet know it and so it isn’t really ours yet. The Course teaches us how to achieve purification so that what we believe becomes what we know and then we will be consistent in what we teach.
The second part of that sentence says that we teach others what they are to us. Without even realizing it, I used to teach the people in my life that they were of use to me. I used them as a source of entertainment when I was bored. Sometimes, I used them to vent my frustrations. I used them to convince me I was loveable and then I used them to prove I was unlovable. It was the same with worthiness. I used others to prove whatever it was I chose to believe about myself. I used them to receive the darkness I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge as mine, projecting my stuff onto them and pretending that it had nothing to do with me. There is no way to avoid doing these things until the mind is healed. Thank God, for A Course in Miracles.
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