How Do You Find Joy in a Joyless World?

How Do You Find Joy in a Joyless World?

After studying the Course for a while and doing forgiveness work, I began to question who I was, what I was.

The answer is very clear right from the start and all through the Course. But one thing I noticed, and maybe you did too, is this. What we are not ready to accept, isn’t heard. This became obvious to me when I read in the Workbook: “What Am I?” (W-pll.14) which is clear and unambiguous. And yet for a long time, my mind loved the words but didn’t actually accept them.

“I am God’s Son, complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection of His Love. In me is His creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life. In me is love perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite. I am the holy home of God Himself. I am the Heaven where His Love resides. I am His holy Sinlessness Itself, for in my purity abides His Own.” (W-pll.14.1:1-6)

And still, I mostly thought of myself as a soul residing in a body in a world of time and space. It was as if the Course was telling me that someday this would not be true. Someday, after I studied enough and practiced enough, I would “graduate” to God’s Son. And of course, that is not what it says at all. It doesn’t say that someday or eventually or even inevitably, I will be God’s Son. It is that I am His Son – now.

But slowly, as I forgave many of the ego thoughts in my mind, I began to open to the truth.

I began to think of myself as spirit dreaming of being a body. I began to dream of being out of the body and that thought compelled me to do more forgiveness. So, I forgave judgements and guilt until I saw that judgements made no sense and I began to accept that guilt was not created by God and so must not be real. My mind opened more and I became ready for more truth.

“Perceiving something alien to itself in your mind, the ego turns to the body as its ally, because the body is not part of you. This makes the body the ego’s friend.” (T-6.IV.4:5-6)

This helped me to begin to think of the body as associated with the ego. And by this time, I knew that I was not the ego, though I still slipped back into that identity often. Still, it was enough to make me question more deeply what I was if not the ego/body.

I thought that when I got out of this body, I would wake up, I would then be spirit. So, I was still confused. But there were other passages that I began to notice. Like this one:

“Help and healing are the normal expressions of a mind that is working through the body, but not in it.” (T-8.Vll.1:2)

Wait, is he saying that I am not in the body at all? How could that be? I feel everything the body feels. And then, I read this:

“The Christ in you inhabits not a body. Yet He is in you. And thus it must be that you are not within a body.” (T-25.in.1:1-3)

Ok, not only am I not a body, I am not in the body at all.

I don’t have to get out of the body, I have never been in a body. And this prayer was so helpful to me:

“Father, I was mistaken in myself, because I failed to realize the Source from which I came. I have not left that Source to enter in a body and to die. My holiness remains a part of me, as I am part of You. And my mistakes about myself are dreams. I let them go today.
And I stand ready to receive Your Word alone for what I really am.” (W-228.2:1-6)

Really, if I had taken seriously the lessons that tell me I am as God created me, I would have immediately dismissed the idea that I am a body or in a body. In Chapter 2 he says;

“The body does not exist except as a learning device for the mind.” (T-2.V.9:2)

Logically this tells me that the body doesn’t exist and I do exist so I cannot be the body.

“It is the body that is outside us, and is not our concern.” (W-72.9:2)

It matters a great deal that we recognize we are not in a body. The salvation of the world depends on our acceptance of this simple truth.

“To see our Self as separate from the body is to end the attack on God’s plan for salvation, and to accept it instead. And wherever His plan is accepted, it is accomplished already.” (W-72.9:5-6)

The world where we look in a mirror and see a body, where we feel like a body with its pleasures and pains is simply an illusion, a hallucination, a thought in our mind. And to accept His plan, the Atonement, is to accomplish it.

So, if we are not in the body, where are we?

I slowly began to accept that I am not this body and not in this body.

When that happened, I read Chapter 6, Section II, paragraph 6 again. And this time, my mind was open to the message.

“How else can you find joy in a joyless place except by realising that you are not there? You cannot be anywhere God did not put you, and God created you as part of Him. That is both where you are and what you are. It is completely unalterable. It is total inclusion. You cannot change it now or ever. It is forever true. It is not a belief, but a Fact. Anything that God created is as true as He is. Its truth lies only in its perfect inclusion in Him Who alone is perfect. To deny this is to deny yourself and Him, since it is impossible to accept one without the other.” (T-6.ll.6:1-11)

Now when I feel attacked, or sick; when I feel anger or hatred; when I feel sad or lonely, I simply remind myself that I am not here. It helps to break the hold the ego has on my awareness. I am spirit and I am in God where He put me. I am not my own creator and so I cannot decide what or where I am. But I can learn of it, or maybe it is better to say that I can be shown.

Many times a day, I remind myself that I am spirit. For nearly all my life, ego has been my default. But through vigilant and consistent forgiveness and now this frequent reminding myself of the truth, spirit is becoming my default identity. If I notice judgmental thoughts, I remind myself that

I am not the ego, I am spirit and nothing I think or do or say can change that basic Fact.

“There is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this: I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself. Yet in this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you of Itself.” (T-31.V.17:6-9)

I have slowly but surely been clearing my mind of meaningless thoughts and this change in thinking has brought me both happiness and peace. Remembering that I am not ego and that I am still as God created me, His holy Son, is making a significant difference.

“My thoughts are images that I have made. Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am. The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. Yet God’s way is sure. The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him.” (W-53.5:1-7)

One day, I was shopping for a Christmas gift and I began to feel uneasy. The other people and what I was looking at were making me uncomfortable. So, I asked Jesus what was going on. I realized I was judging and, automatically, I reminded myself that I am spirit and these errant thoughts do not change that. Never am I in this body that I am so closely identified with.

I am mind awake.

“God creates only mind awake. He does not sleep, and His creations cannot share what He gives not, nor make conditions which He does not share with them.” (W-167.8:1-2)

Thus I must be that. Very quickly, the distress was gone. Darkness cannot exist where there is light and the truth enlightens the mind. I just remind myself that the light is always there. If I am unaware of the light, it is because I have placed my attention on the darkness and I change my mind.

It is that simple. I can have the experiences of mind asleep but I cannot be mind asleep because I was created mind awake. It is always that simple. What we believe is what we want to believe, and believed, it becomes real to us. And yet, it is not real, thank goodness. And returning to reality is as simple as learning to watch our thoughts and forgiving those that are not true. We let them go and what is left is what we are, where we are.

“When the Will of the Sonship and the Father are one, their perfect accord is Heaven.” (T-3.ll.4:6)

And thus, as I forgive, the veil is lifted. Nothing has actually changed, but what is revealed is the truth of who we are and where we are. Once seen, it is compelling.

“For thus am I led past this world to my creations, children of my will, in Heaven where my holy Self abides with them and Him Who has created me.” (W-253.1:6)

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