IV. Teaching and Healing, P 4
4 I heard one Voice because I understood that I could not atone for myself alone. Listening to one Voice implies the decision to share It in order to hear It yourself. The Mind that was in me is still irresistibly drawn to every mind created by God, because God’s Wholeness is the Wholeness of His Son. You cannot be hurt, and do not want to show your brother anything except your wholeness. Show him that he cannot hurt you and hold nothing against him, or you hold it against yourself. This is the meaning of “turning the other cheek.”
Journal
I am listening to the Voice for God when I know that I am not this body-personality, but spirit. I share the one Voice when I act like I am spirit. I can listen to only this Voice if I want to. I can learn to hear only Spirit because Jesus learned that he could not atone for himself alone and so came to know Wholeness, and so I can make the same decision. Or I can listen to ego sometimes and Spirit sometimes.
I see the opportunities to make this choice daily. At work when someone says or does something that seems like an attack, I have a choice. I can go with the ego belief that I can be attacked and plan my defense. I can act on that thought and actively defend myself. I can hold his actions against him and let him know in little ways how aggrieved I am. This is listening to the ego voice, and is equally destructive to both myself and the other person because I can’t hurt another and not hurt myself.
If I listen to Spirit instead of ego, I may be aware that the other person may think they are acting against me, but I know they are simply acting out of fear. It has nothing to do with me. I don’t feel the need to defend myself, and so I don’t teach defense and I don’t teach vulnerability. I hear a call for love and so answer the call. I am teaching love instead. I show him that I am whole and that he cannot hurt me. This teaches him that the same is true for him. This is the meaning of turning the other cheek.
I have done both of these things. I have seen attack and returned attack and so taken us both deeper into the illusion. At other times I have sat in perfect peace and allowed the other person’s fear based attack to flow over me without effect. I didn’t endure it or suffer silently; I simply didn’t feel it as an attack. So I know that it is possible to hear the Voice for God rather than ego. Now I practice listening to only that Voice. I do this by paying attention to my thoughts and asking for healing when they indicate a desire to listen to ego.
Sometimes it takes a little while to understand and accept this help from Spirit. I had a grievance against someone at work and when I would notice the discomfort of holding the grievance I would ask for healing. But then I would pick up the grievance again. I don’t like to suffer anymore so I finally asked for help with more openness. I asked what it was that Spirit wanted me to know about this.
The thought that came into my mind was that this person was threatening my income source and that I was very afraid of losing money. I hadn’t realized this was the source of my anger with him. I thought it was his actions, but it was really about my fear. So my prayer is that I receive the atonement or this situation. I want my mind to be healed of the belief that my happiness and my well-being are based on my paycheck.
I want to be free of this belief so that I will stop attacking my brother out of fear for myself. I imagine the two of us approaching God while bickering and vying for position. It’s ridiculous. We can enter the Kingdom hand in hand or not at all. There is no fear and no defense in God so we must let that go if we want to know ourselves as part of God. The lesson I read today is, “The peace of God is all I want.” I must choose between protecting my income and the peace of God. I cannot cherish any illusion and have the peace of God. As I release my fear, I find I have no need to defend myself against my brother.