Lesson 129

Lesson 129
Beyond this world there is a world I want.
This is the thought that follows from the one we practiced yesterday. You cannot stop with the idea the world is worthless, for unless you see that there is something else to hope for, you will only be depressed. Our emphasis is not on giving up the world, but on exchanging it for what is far more satisfying, filled with joy, and capable of offering you peace. Think you this world can offer that to you?

It might be worth a little time to think once more about the value of this world. Perhaps you will concede there is no loss in letting go all thought of value here. The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. It gives but to rescind, and takes away all things that you have cherished for a while. No lasting love is found, for none is here. This is the world of time, where all things end.

Is it a loss to find a world instead where losing is impossible; where love endures forever, hate cannot exist and vengeance has no meaning? Is it loss to find all things you really want, and know they have no ending and they will remain exactly as you want them throughout time? Yet even they will be exchanged at last for what we cannot speak of, for you go from there to where words fail entirely, into a silence where the language is unspoken and yet surely understood.

Communication, unambiguous and plain as day, remains unlimited for all eternity. And God Himself speaks to His Son, as His Son speaks to Him. Their language has no words, for what They say cannot be symbolized. Their knowledge is direct and wholly shared and wholly one. How far away from this are you who stay bound to this world. And yet how near are you, when you exchange it for the world you want.

Now is the last step certain; now you stand an instant’s space away from timelessness. Here can you but look forward, never back to see again the world you do not want. Here is the world that comes to take its place, as you unbind your mind from little things the world sets forth to keep you prisoner. Value them not, and they will disappear. Esteem them, and they will seem real to you.

Such is the choice. What loss can be for you in choosing not to value nothingness? This world holds nothing that you really want, but what you choose instead you want indeed! Let it be given you today. It waits but for your choosing it, to take the place of all the things you seek but do not want.

Practice your willingness to make this change ten minutes in the morning and at night, and once more in between. Begin with this:

Beyond this world there is a world I want.
I choose to see that world instead of this,
for here is nothing that I really want.

Then close your eyes upon the world you see, and in the silent darkness watch the lights that are not of this world light one by one, until where one begins another ends loses all meaning as they blend in one.

Today the lights of Heaven bend to you, to shine upon your eyelids as you rest beyond the world of darkness. Here is light your eyes can not behold. And yet your mind can see it plainly, and can understand. A day of grace is given you today, and we give thanks. This day we realize that what you feared to lose was only loss.

Now do we understand there is no loss. For we have seen its opposite at last, and we are grateful that the choice is made. Remember your decision hourly, and take a moment to confirm your choice by laying by whatever thoughts you have, and dwelling briefly only upon this:

The world I see holds nothing that I want.
Beyond this world there is a world I want.

 

Journal

“Our emphasis is not on giving up the world, but on exchanging it for what is far more satisfying,”

“Value them not, and they will disappear. Esteem them, and they will seem real to you.”

I’m not spending too much time on recognizing the world as I see it is not something I want. I know that it is not. Even those small things I still cling to, the things I value, I do not value much. Even as I write about them, I am releasing them. I do understand that my value of them makes them real to me. When I worry about my weight or about my child’s problems, I make them real in my mind. I am learning to release these things, learning that I want to release them and learning that I can release them.

“Is it a loss to find a world instead where losing is impossible; where love endures forever, hate cannot exist and vengeance has no meaning? Is it loss to find all things you really want, and know they have no ending and they will remain exactly as you want them throughout time? Yet even they will be exchanged at last for what we cannot speak of, for you go from there to where words fail entirely, into a silence where the language is unspoken and yet surely understood.”

I understand this paragraph to mean that as I forgive the world I made through the projections of my guilt and hatred, I awaken to a world projected from the love and peace and joy that is in me and is me. It is the real world, the happy dream, and I know it is possible because I know people who have awakened to this world. And as wonderful as it is, it is not all there is.

From this purified and perfected world, we move into something for which there are no words. This is where we are lifted into God. I find that I am not interested in lingering on this idea because I cannot imagine it and I feel I need to place my focus on that part which needs my attention and my agreement. I am doing as Jesus asks me to do. I am sitting in quiet and contemplating the idea for today as I allow the Holy Spirit to purify my mind of all other beliefs.

“Beyond this world there is a world I want. I choose to see that world instead of this, for here is nothing that I really want.”

Regina’s Tips

Anyone who is familiar with Michael Langford’s work may have noticed “Choice A” and “Choice B” in today’s workbook lesson. These choices are laid out in Chapter 5 of ‘The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss.’ Here are some excerpts:

“The primary means to awaken the extremely intense desire for liberation is to carefully examine two choices everyday until the extremely intense desire for liberation awakens. …

“Choice A is Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss with no sorrow and no suffering. Choice A is Eternal Life. Choice A is to live as your true Self for all eternity. Choice A is absolutely perfect joy.

“Choice B is being identified with a body subject to suffering, sorrow, disease, death, violence, fear, anger, etc. Choice B is to allow an imposter called the ego to pretend to be yourself and to control you. Choice B is to allow an imposter called the ego, that has created all the wars, diseases, death, sorrow, suffering and evil that every human has ever experienced, to continue. Choice B is to have a temporary and therefore futile life that leads only to death.”

Today’s Course lesson asks us to look at these same choices.

We have found the pathway home. Now, let’s walk it.

My Thoughts

Both Langford and Jesus ask us to so two very important things. One is, as expressed by Michael Langford, “Co-operate with your Heart. Stop listening to your ego.” The other is to spend time in meditation today coming to know you Self. I intend to do both.

Past Entry

The world the ego made is never going to offer me anything I want because it is always about change, shift, death, pain, fear and guilt. This ego world that I made to take the place of God’s world, I call hell.

There is a world beyond this one that the Holy Spirit made. It takes everything I did and uses it to teach me that there is something better, something I want more. There is a forgiven world where I can have a happy dream.

Even this happy world is not the truth. Beyond it is God, or as we commonly refer to it, Heaven. I made the first, the Holy Spirit helps me perceive the second, and Heaven is given me by God. As the Course says, in the last step He reaches down and takes me up into Himself.

Mother’s Day is coming up and I have been noticing what thoughts come to mind as I think about that, which I must, with all the advertisements to buy something nice for mom, and with friends talking about honoring their parents. My mom is gone and in the past, I have felt guilt at this time of the year when I thought about her.

I felt guilt for not being a better daughter. Visions of my many errors would play across my mind. I would remember not calling, not caring, not being there for her even though she was always there for me. It would make me cry and this would trigger memories of those times when I failed to be my idea of a good mom to my kids.

I would then see so many moments when I could have done better for them. Sometimes the memories of an especially bad choice were so vivid it would be like I was experiencing my sins all over again. This would really make me cry. And like any ego, and while in my guilt and regret I was fully engaged as ego, I would start trying to find someone or something to blame, somewhere to project some of this guilt. I would think how my mom did this, or how my actions with my kids were influenced by that.

I would look for evidence I wasn’t as bad as I thought, waiting to see if my kids would come see me, call me, bring me gift wrapped proof I wasn’t the worst mom of all. And when they did do these things, I thought they were just doing their duty. I couldn’t let any amount of kindness shake my firm belief that I was guilty.

What I noticed this year as I thought about Mother’s Day is that I don’t have Mother’s Day guilt anymore. I think of my Mom with love and appreciation. I think of my kids with love and affection. I think of myself as someone who has lived the story she needed to live to do her part in the awakening. Each error I have ever made was just as important to the process as that which I judged as a success.

It is like I am building something beautiful, something monumental. and each of those experiences, no matter how I judged it in the past, is part of that beautiful thing. I think I have forgiven myself and my mom and my kids. I think I can just enjoy the story of us now without expectation of being judged or without the need to be forgiven by them.

Well, this may not be the happy dream, but it is a big step forward. It is much happier than the dream I used to live. I hope that my children will, on some level, be aware of the forgiveness I have afforded myself, and the happiness that comes from that forgiveness. I hope that it will save them years of useless self-recrimination for their own errors.

All guilt, regardless of the stories we live to explain the guilt, is meaningless. It makes a world of unnecessary suffering. Releasing guilt, the very belief in guilt, to the Holy Spirit affords us a new vision of the world, a happier vision, and one that leads us directly to God.

My message from Holy Spirit

Precious child, hold dear that vision of love you have received. Let your heart swell with joy at the thought of a world untainted by the lies of the ego. The light of the truth will shine from you and will light the way before you and for others. This is why you came, and what you came to do. This is your purpose. There will be many other opportunities to see past the ego world to My world and each one that you choose will intensify your light and strengthen your ability to see beyond. Soon the world of the ego will become a vague shadow without substance and unable to block your awareness of the truth.