Lesson 128

Lesson 128
The world I see holds nothing that I want.

The world you see holds nothing that you need to offer you; nothing that you can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give you joy. Believe this thought, and you are saved from years of misery, from countless disappointments, and from hopes that turn to bitter ashes of despair. No one but must accept this thought as true, if he would leave the world behind and soar beyond its petty scope and little ways.

Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world, and it will serve no other end but this. For everything must serve the purpose you have given it, until you see a different purpose there. The only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by, without delaying to perceive some hope where there is none. Be you deceived no more. The world you see holds nothing that you want.

Escape today the chains you place upon your mind when you perceive salvation here. For what you value you make part of you as you perceive yourself. All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight limit you further, hide your worth from you, and add another bar across the door that leads to true awareness of your Self.

Let nothing that relates to body thoughts delay your progress to salvation, nor permit temptation to believe the world holds anything you want to hold you back. Nothing is here to cherish. Nothing here is worth one instant of delay and pain; one moment of uncertainty and doubt. The worthless offer nothing. Certainty of worth can not be found in worthlessness.

Today we practice letting go all thought of values we have given to the world. We leave it free of purposes we gave its aspects and its phases and its dreams. We hold it purposeless within our minds, and loosen it from all we wish it were. Thus do we lift the chains that bar the door to freedom from the world, and go beyond all little values and diminished goals.

Pause and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world, when you release your mind from chains and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home. It will be grateful to be free a while. It knows where it belongs. But free its wings, and it will fly in sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose. Let it rest in its Creator, there to be restored to sanity, to freedom and to love.

Give it ten minutes rest three times today. And when your eyes are opened afterwards, you will not value anything you see as much as when you looked at it before. Your whole perspective on the world will shift by just a little, every time you let your mind escape its chains. The world is not where it belongs. And you belong where it would be, and where it goes to rest when you release it from the world. Your Guide is sure. Open your mind to Him. Be still and rest.

Protect your mind throughout the day as well. And when you think you see some value in an aspect or an image of the world, refuse to lay this chain upon your mind, but tell yourself with quiet certainty:

This will not tempt me to delay myself.
The world I see holds nothing that I want.

 

Journal

“All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight limit you further.”

“Let nothing that relates to body thoughts delay your progress to salvation,”

“Letting go all thought of values we have given to the world”

“We hold it purposeless within our minds”

I think I agree that the world holds nothing I want and yet, here I am. So what is it that I still want from the world? I am given clues throughout this lesson. When I try to do something that gives me greater value in the world. This could be how I look. Or it could be how people view me and how I view myself as a teacher, a minister, a parent. So much of that I have released. Some I still cling to but I loosen my hold on it every day.

What body thoughts am I interested in? I want to be healthy, slim –  well, slimmish. I want certain bodies in my life and others not to be there. I think that it is better to have one of those bodies near me than not, as if I could ever be alone when I am one with all that exists. That I can understand this concept but not feel it means that I am more identified with the body than with the spirit. I am willing for this to not be true anymore.

What values and what purpose have I given the world? I don’t know, really. I sometimes think about how I would feel if I had a sudden heart attack and lay there dying. What would I miss? What would I wish to experience one more time? The answer to those questions would help me to know the value and purpose I have given the world.

I think I would long to see and touch my children one more time. I would long to say I love you to them, to hug them. I would regret not seeing my grandchildren smile at me. I might give a thought to wishing I had taken the time to put my thoughts into a book I could leave behind. I don’t have a beloved pet, nor do I care much for nature. I have no interest in fame or wealth. So nothing to regret there.

I notice that now I am getting older and closer to saying goodbye to this world, I do feel a pang of regret for never again, in this life at least, experiencing the love of a man. That kind of surprised me. I thought of past relationships and of the happy moments in them and felt sad not to do that again, not sad enough to go for it, but just a little grief for lost opportunity.

As I look at this writing, I think that I don’t have a lot to release before I can say that the world holds nothing that I want. I think that not needing much from the world makes what I do have even better because there is no clinginess to it. Without need there is no fear of loss so there is only pleasure in the moment and then moving onto the next moment.

Regina’s Tips

One way to let go of our value in the world and increase our desire for awakening is to let tragedy strike so that we are disillusioned by the world. However, today’s workbook lesson offers a gentler solution:

“Pause and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world, when you release your mind from chains and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home.”

I told you that spiritual practice itself motivates me to spiritual practice. That is the gentler method that is recommended by the Course. Practice awareness-watching-awareness anyway, even if you do not think you are ready to let go of the world, and the practice itself will prepare you for awakening.

 My Thoughts

This is the method I want, to be still and let my mind be healed by the Holy Spirit. I am determined to do this. I know that the Self is going to bring me to awakening and it will do so by whatever means are necessary. I prefer to choose the gentle way rather than relying on tragedy to impel me toward awakening.

Regina also quotes Michael Langford as saying that ultimately all things disappear, the world, the universe, the galaxies. I noticed that there was a reaction in me. Is Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss enough? What will we do? That is the ego in my mind worrying about being bored with nothing to do, nothing to see. I’m not too concerned about that. By the time I get to this part, I will have discovered what “being” has to offer over “doing.” Anyway, we have no idea what it is like being in God. Right now, I will concern myself with letting go of the belief that my body size and shape matter. ~smile~

Past Entries

The Value of a Ding Dong
“Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world…”

One day I was driving home after a long day of work and I was tired. I suddenly decided I really wanted a Ding Dong and a store I was going to be passing soon had them. My next thought was that I did not need this confection. I had just eaten and was not hungry at all. I thought about it for a moment and realized that I was about to feed a bodily appetite, and when I feed a bodily appetite I feed the ego. What I feed grows.

The problem was this. I have most often given into that desire and so it is a learned response. Worse still, I have told myself that I can’t say no. The more I thought about a yummy Ding Dong, the more I wanted it. I thought about it some more and I realized that this desire is for more than a cupcake. It represents my desire to choose for myself and to exert my ego self-will. It represents my desire to stay in the story where there are Ding Dongs to choose. So, in essence, if I had to choose between Ding Dongs and awakening, I would choose Ding Dongs.

That sounds ridiculous, but if I remember that everything here is not real, but simply representative of a thought in my mind, Ding Dongs are no different than anything else. They are just a form of what I value. To value the Ding Dong is to value the world and it is this value I give it that keeps the world I see in place. It is what binds me to the world.

By this time I have been thinking about not having a Ding Dong for several miles and so I really want that Ding Dong! But I have also been practicing not giving into bodily appetites and so I asked for help with this. Obviously, I cannot use the ego mind to avoid the ego temptations. In fact, thinking about this has just made it harder. I remembered that there is a place in the Text where Jesus says he will take our body and our ego if we want him to. So I asked him to take my appetite.

I felt a lot of resistance to this. I did pass the first store but now there is another one coming up. I wanted the Ding Dong, but I also wanted to ignore this ego temptation. I stopped for gas and I watched the conflicted thoughts in my mind while at the pump. I told myself I could have the cake if I wanted it, but I was also willing to release the idea it was valuable to me. I was willing to release my body and ego to Jesus so he could show me how unimportant they are.

I wound up driving away without even going into the store. My thought was that I must have decided against the ego. I suddenly felt very free! I was not chained to the body and its appetites. At least not this time, and as Jesus says: “Your whole perspective on the world will shift by just a little, every time you let your mind escape its chains”. I was so grateful!

This doesn’t mean there is anything intrinsically evil about Ding Dongs, or that I can never have one. It just means I am not chained to my lesser desires. I am not chained to the world. I choose to eat because I am hungry, or even because something tastes really good, but not because I think I have to, that I can’t resist, to comfort myself, or for any ego purpose.

Do not associate withdrawing value with loss.

Here is a past message about seeing value where there is none. This occurred when my youngest child graduated from college and I was feeling panicky about losing him and losing my highly valued position as mother.

Holy Spirit: Do not associate withdrawing value with loss. This is not about giving up anything. In fact, this is not about what you have or do not have. It is about the value the mind places on these things. You can find something useful without feeling it is essential to your happiness.

Me: Holy Spirit, I notice that I do not want to ask You for a different way to see my son’s changed status in my life. I seem to be afraid of Your answer. Could You talk to me about that?

Holy Spirit: I do not want to take your child from you, or to suggest that you love him less. I want to teach you how to love him in a way that brings joy to you both and that never brings pain or harm. There is a way to love that does not chain you to the world you see. You feel that you need him to fill a space in your life and that if he does not, then you will be bereft. This is not really love; it is neediness and is based on the idea that you could lack anything. Seeing his body moving away from you, or even his attention moving away from you as painful, is the result of placing value on his body being where you think you need it to be.

Do you see how this chains you to the world of form? You have now made your happiness dependent on something outside your mind. You have placed a body in your life and given it the ability to make you happy or to punish you. Does this sound like the work of God? Is this really what you want? I suggest that you really want not the body, but what the body has come to symbolize for you.

What you really want is the love of God as expressed through your son. You can have this without his proximity. To experience this love you must be willing to look away from the false idols that have captured your attention. You want God’s love but have asked that it look like what it is not. Do you see how impossible this is? Myron let loose your ideas of what love will look like and God’s love will flow effortlessly into your mind. The picture you have of your son’s love is holding you hostage to the ego. It will not bring you joy and peace.

Look with Me at all the meaning you have given love and together we will heal your mind and return it to the awareness of God’s constant and unending love.