II. The End of Doubt, P 1
1 The Atonement is in time, but not for time. Being in you, it is eternal. What holds remembrance of God cannot be bound by time. No more are you. For unless God is bound, you cannot be. An instant offered to the Holy Spirit is offered to God on your behalf, and in that instant you will awaken gently in Him. In the blessed instant you will let go all your past learning, and the Holy Spirit will quickly offer you the whole lesson of peace. What can take time, when all the obstacles to learning it have been removed? Truth is so far beyond time that all of it happens at once. For as it was created one, so its oneness depends not on time at all.
Journal
In this paragraph, Jesus is sharing with us some difficult concepts, difficult because they are unlike what we experience now. He is telling us that we are given the Atonement in time where it is useful to us, but it has nothing to do with time, being Itself eternal. The Atonement holds the memory of God and nothing with that memory can be bound by time. This is good news because that memory is in us and so we are eternal as well, and cannot be bound by time.
He also talks about the holy Instant as one that is offered to the Holy Spirit. He says that when we offer that moment to the Holy Spirit who offers it to God on our behalf, in that instant we will awaken gently in Him. I have done this many times, this offering the moment to the Holy Spirit, and I don’t seem to have gone past all learning, and I don’t seem to have received the whole lesson of peace.
And yet it must be true. This is why Jesus explains the relationship between the Atonement and time and eternity. In eternity, where we are, the moment was offered and the world fell away. We exist with and in God in perfect bliss. It was instantaneous because there is no time to traverse in eternity. In time, where we think we are, the answer unfolds gently and seems to span time, years usually.
It is all part of the illusion that includes the world and time and space. So we are both awake and waking up depending on your perspective, but there is only one truth, and in truth, we are awake in God because there is only God. I have been practicing shifting my awareness from the world. In this practice, I have had brief instances of something closer to my reality than life as if I am a body. This is possible because it is actually the truth right now. Shift your focus from the body and you will shift into reality, or as close to reality as you are ready for.
I to have offered a holy instant to the Holy Spirit and Have not perceived that I have received the whole lesson of peace. I think that is because I still believe in time and space and so what I receive was in the contest of time. However, I am still as He created me and my mind holds only the thoughts that He has shared with me, so how can my perception be changed? I think that, although this world is a hallucination projected by insane ego thoughts, there must be some reality that I can dwell on. On what should I dwell? Giving and receiving are the same so what can I give all of and and never run out of must be real? Love is something I can give and never lose. Thoughts can be given away and never lost. So, they must be real and I try to dwell on sharing loving thoughts. What He created is real and the mark of His creation is eternity. What on this earth is eternal? Once again loving thoughts fit the bill and since there are no thoughts that are not instantly shared with all of His creations I should dwell on sharing only loving thoughts. Basically, I remind myself that I do not have to understand everything or for that matter I do not have to understand anything, but I do have to muster-up the faith of a mustard seed and believe that I am His son and that He sent me here to represent Him and to do the part that He assigned me in His plan for the salvation of the world.
My earthly father told me that he did not believe in an afterlife, just before he passed on. I was aghast when he stated that and suggested that he might be “pleasantly surprised. However, at first I was sad because he was a very religious man and highly intelligent. I thought that he was mistaken. Shortly there after, while thinking about the eternal nature of God’s creation, I laughed aloud as I realized that my dad was correct, since His son is eternal, death can not possibly be real ergo, there is no “after” life.
I have tried to stay “on topic” to the best of my ability.
Thank you for your guidance.
His son and your brother,
Charles
I love your reasoning, Charles, and how it always brought you back to love. Love is all there is. Love is real and eternal. You touched on something else that I have been thinking about. What is my purpose in being here? I am certain I am not here to express God as a money maker or as a pleasure seeker or even as a really good pain avoider. Thinking about that I believe I am here to extend love every chance I get, to be kind, to be of service, to help the world through loving expressions. Most importantly, I am here to throw off the veil of separation, to see everything and everyone as part of the whole from which we were created, and to help my brothers and sisters do the same. I have begun to remind myself of the reason I am here so that in the day to day minutiae of living I don’t forget.
I think you are correct about why you/we are here. The course states that we are here to be truly helpful and to represent Him who sent us. It also says that we do not have to worry about what to say or do or where to go because He who sent us will direct us. Thinking about this statement that we will be directed makes me smile and be very content to “let go and let God”. Whenever I forget about letting go, so that He can take control, I find that life gets very complicated and numerous aspects of my life get askew. As soon as I realize that I am “driving the bus” and ask Him to do the “driving”, my life gets peaceful again and whatever worries I may have had melt away. There is a magnetic sticker in my workshop to remind me to let go, which states, “If God is your copilot, change seats”.
I often wonder how or why I forgot our Father and his Kingdom/our home and the only reality that He created. I’ve watched little children playing in their own little world, oblivious to the world around them and without any fear of any kind. I sense that they are still aware of our Father and see this world reflected in his light, seeing perfect love everywhere. Perhaps as they are “taught” the laws of this world they slowly believe them and over time they forget reality as they knew it, at home with our father. They say that “NO” is one of the first words that children learn to speak. In what context are they saying no? NO, you adults are mistaken and your thoughts are upside down; NO, I change my mind about agreeing to come here, this world is beyond help ; NO, I do not want this body, life was much more enjoyable without it! It is a shame that we have forgotten but it is a blessing that our Father wants us to remember Him for there is nothing that His son can not do if it is His will.
Thank You for your words of encouragement!
His son and your brother
Charles
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about this. I wholeheartedly agree and have had some of the same thoughts myself. I continue to practice letting my life become less significant to me and letting my true purpose take precedence. When I got here the veil fell over my memory and just got heavier and more opaque with time. It is my job to tear that veil down so that nothing stands between me and my Self as Love, between me and my God.