Lesson 133

I will not value what is valueless.
Sometimes in teaching there is benefit, particularly after you have gone through what seems theoretical and far from what the student has already learned, to bring him back to practical concerns. This we will do today. We will not speak of lofty, world-encompassing ideas, but dwell instead on benefits to you.

You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. This course does not attempt to take from you the little that you have. It does not try to substitute utopian ideas for satisfactions which the world contains. There are no satisfactions in the world.

Today we list the real criteria by which to test all things you think you want. Unless they meet these sound requirements, they are not worth desiring at all, for they can but replace what offers more. The laws that govern choice you cannot make, no more than you can make alternatives from which to choose. The choosing you can do; indeed, you must. But it is wise to learn the laws you set in motion when you choose, and what alternatives you choose between.

We have already stressed there are but two, however many there appear to be. The range is set, and this we cannot change. It would be most ungenerous to you to let alternatives be limitless, and thus delay your final choice until you had considered all of them in time; and not been brought so clearly to the place where there is but one choice that must be made.

Another kindly and related law is that there is no compromise in what your choice must bring. It cannot give you just a little, for there is no in between. Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. Therefore, if you learn the tests by which you can distinguish everything from nothing, you will make the better choice.

First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is valueless. A temporary value is without all value. Time can never take away a value that is real. What fades and dies was never there, and makes no offering to him who chooses it. He is deceived by nothing in a form he thinks he likes.

Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will have nothing left. This is because, when you deny his right to everything, you have denied your own. You therefore will not recognize the things you really have, denying they are there. Who seeks to take away has been deceived by the illusion loss can offer gain. Yet loss must offer loss, and nothing more.

Your next consideration is the one on which the others rest. Why is the choice you make of value to you? What attracts your mind to it? What purpose does it serve? Here it is easiest of all to be deceived. For what the ego wants it fails to recognize. It does not even tell the truth as it perceives it, for it needs to keep the halo which it uses to protect its goals from tarnish and from rust, that you may see how “innocent” it is.

Yet is its camouflage a thin veneer, which could deceive but those who are content to be deceived. Its goals are obvious to anyone who cares to look for them. Here is deception doubled, for the one who is deceived will not perceive that he has merely failed to gain. He will believe that he has served the ego’s hidden goals.

Yet though he tries to keep its halo clear within his vision, still must he perceive its tarnished edges and its rusted core. His ineffectual mistakes appear as sins to him, because he looks upon the tarnish as his own; the rust a sign of deep unworthiness within himself. He who would still preserve the ego’s goals and serve them as his own makes no mistakes, according to the dictates of his guide. This guidance teaches it is error to believe that sins are but mistakes, for who would suffer for his sins if this were so?

And so we come to the criterion for choice that is the hardest to believe, because its obviousness is overlaid with many levels of obscurity. If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the ego’s goals to come between the real alternatives. And thus you do not realize there are but two, and the alternative you think you chose seems fearful, and too dangerous to be the nothingness it actually is.

All things are valuable or valueless, worthy or not of being sought at all, entirely desirable or not worth the slightest effort to obtain. Choosing is easy just because of this. Complexity is nothing but a screen of smoke, which hides the very simple fact that no decision can be difficult. What is the gain to you in learning this? It is far more than merely letting you make choices easily and without pain.

Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own. We will attempt to reach this state today, with self-deception laid aside, and with an honest willingness to value but the truly valuable and the real. Our two extended practice periods of fifteen minutes each begin with this:

I will not value what is valueless,
and only what has value do I seek,
for only that do I desire to find.

And then receive what waits for everyone who reaches, unencumbered, to the gate of Heaven, which swings open as he comes. Should you begin to let yourself collect some needless burdens, or believe you see some difficult decisions facing you, be quick to answer with this simple thought:

I will not value what is valueless,
for what is valuable belongs to me.

INITIAL INSIGHT: These are the laws that govern choice.

• “We have already stressed there are but two, however many there appear to be.” 
• “Another kindly and related law is that there is no compromise in what your choice must bring.”
• We only have two choices, reality or illusion, God or ego, what has value and what is valueless. It only seems like there are endless choices we can make because we confuse form with content. Jesus is going to tell us how this works. He also says that there is no compromise in the effects of our choice.  Jesus says that each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. I love this. It feels simple and safe, something I have not felt before when I believed life was complicated and dangerous and so very hard to figure out.

The real criteria by which to test all things you think you want.

• First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is valueless.
• Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will have nothing left.
• Why is the choice you make of value to you? What attracts your mind to it? What purpose does it serve?
• If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the ego’s goals to come between the real alternatives.

DAILY APPLICATION: I understand the criteria and I have used this lesson for a long time now so I have let go of much of what I sought in the past. I used to think a lot of things would make me happy, things from nice clothes to a new car. These things do not last forever and I learned through trial and error that the satisfaction they bring is temporary at best, and not worth my effort.

I see now that seeking these things cost me more than money. The seeking of these things was a distraction from what I came to do. Now I buy clothes when I need them and I get a new car when the old one wears out. I buy clothes that feel nice and look good and flatter me, but if I can’t find that, I buy what is there. In other words, I don’t try to make the buying and the wearing of clothes my salvation like I used to. An example is that in the past I bought clothes that looked expensive so that people would think I was successful and therefore worthy.

It’s the same when I bought my car. I bought a car with the most luxury that I could afford, not to make a statement, but because I drive so much that I need the luxury. That wasn’t the case in the past. I used to be embarrassed if I didn’t have a nice car. Having an old car seemed to me to be a sign of unworthiness, and that mattered a great deal to me. I believed I was unworthy, and so I hid my unworthiness through an outward display of success.

Another criterion was taking from someone. I no longer think there is some satisfaction in taking from someone else. This used to be obvious in my workplace but weakened even there. I remember one time when I got a new customer, and it was in an area where I had just lost a customer to the other company. I felt a surge of vindictive satisfaction when it happened. It was a small weak surge because by then I didn’t really believe I needed that anymore.

It was more of an echo of the old feelings I used to get when I thought I had won. I know what it feels like to take from someone, and I know what it feels like to join with someone. Now that I know what union feels like, I have no interest in taking. No matter how much I take, winning is too costly. I lose all sense of oneness and that is a loss I am not willing to accept.

Sometimes I am not as clear about my motives, about why I want something. I remember when I wanted to retire, and the closer I got to retiring the more I wanted it. I was not comfortable with that yearning and that told me that I needed to look more closely at my reasons. It felt confusing to me because I wanted it and so I had muddied the water. I had obscured the issue to make it harder to see what was really going on with me.

But the one thing I knew for sure is that retirement was not my salvation, and wanting anything desperately is always fueled by the belief that it is salvation. I knew what to do about that. I was willing to be shown what was behind my desire to retire. I was willing to uncover what I was hiding from myself. I still took the steps needed to retire, but I wanted to retire because it is time to do so, not because I thought it was going to save me from something. The funny thing is that my desire for purity in my motivation achieved it. No new understanding came, just a certainty that I was deciding with my Holy Spirit, not with the ego.

What stands out to me the most is that I choose between everything and nothing. That which does not last is nothing dressed up to look like something. That’s why money and fame and all of the other is of no value whatsoever, it is nothing, it is only an illusion of something. Does this mean that I should not have any of this? I don’t think that is what he is saying. What I don’t want to do is to waste my time striving for these things thinking they are going to make me happy.

If I were to find myself in a script where I am rich and famous, the question would be how can this be used in a way that makes it valuable? What we make for ourselves can be used by the Holy Spirit if we are willing. This makes me think of Oprah Winfrey. She has money and fame and has used it to be kind and helpful and to promote higher spiritual ideas. She has not let it keep her from looking within and letting her mind be healed.

INSIGHTS FROM HOLY SPIRIT: Here is what I have learned from the Holy Spirit about the following passage: “Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own. “

More and more I am coming to realize that this is how the mind is healed. Just let go of everything and approach awakening with confidence. I begin my meditations by saying, “Here I am, God.” That is all that is needed. That is me without any instructions for Him. Haha. It is me coming with empty hands and an open mind ready to receive what is given.

Whatever I say afterward that is to be the contemplation of the day is always open-ended. For instance, I might say that I want to know my Self. Or if it is a contemplation on the lesson it will be like today’s, which is actually just a variation on wanting to know my Self. Everything that I am learning through A Course in Miracles is to bring me to the point of knowing my Self which is in union with my brothers and with God.

“I will not value what is valueless, and only what has value do I seek, for only that do I desire to find.”

GRATITUDE: Holy Spirit, if I still value what is valueless, please bring this to my awareness. I am ready to wake up and I don’t want any foolish desires binding me to the world.

REGINA’S TIPS

Today’s lesson begins by telling us we will take a break from the theoretical and come back now to practical concerns. If we will see today’s lesson as practical and not theoretical, we will shed the ego thought system.

Let me start by saying that the ego is inherently selfish. The ego always thinks of ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ It has no other point of view. Spirit, on the other hand, thinks only of purpose and wholeness. It has a broad perspective, and ‘me’ is completely unimportant. That doesn’t mean that the individual is sacrificed. The individual is loved as part of the whole, which is completely different than the selfishness of the ego.

I will also say that one of the most challenging things to teach is dropping selfishness. The ego is extremely protective of it. Yet, if you are to know the heart of truth, selfishness must be let go.

Today’s workbook lesson is excellent in its practicality if you will use it that way. I did. The effect for me was that I saw my own selfishness in a way I had not seen it before, and this generated a change in me from a selfish perspective to a perspective of service.

When I first used this was during that period of time when Ron and I had agreed to marry, and then I began to sense that he was going to back out. I told that story in last Sunday’s service. (I will provide the link to the audio in the comments section below.)

At first, my response to realizing he would back out was a lot of ego chatter. That chatter was focused on ideas about how I could still get what I wanted. It looked at the situation from many different angles, like it was working on a puzzle, and it tried to figure out the exact strategy that would get what I wanted. And yet, somehow I was blind to the selfishness in that until I tested what I wanted against the criteria in today’s workbook lesson. The test looked something like this:

1. I want to convince Ron to marry me. I remember there are only two alternatives, and in every choice I make I choose either ego or heaven. I accept that as true. I also accept there is no compromise, no ‘in-between’ option. This wanting is either ego or heaven, and I am here to discover which it is. If I convince Ron to marry me, will that marriage last forever? No. At best, “death do us part.” It could end in divorce before that. If I convince Ron to marry me, am I taking something from someone else? Cleary the answer is ‘yes.’ If he does not want to marry me, and I somehow convince him to marry me, I am taking his freedom to follow his own will from him. Is it possible that if I convince Ron to marry me, I will later feel guilty? Yes, I can see how that might occur. Therefore, my desire to convince Ron to marry me is ego and must be let go.

2. What if I do nothing? What if I simply let this unfold without grievance and let everything be? Will that last forever? Yes! I see how simply letting everything unfold and be as it is, is a non-ending state of being. If I make this choice, am I taking something from someone else? No, not at all ever. Will I feel guilty about this choice? No, it seems that I would only feel curious. And if I am completely genuine in letting everything unfold without putting my desires upon it, I would be happy.

And so, I made the second choice. That is how this lesson works in a practical way. Also, from looking at this and other choices this clearly, I could instantly see what was selfish and what was not. I learned to drop the selfishness, and live in a state of service, which is ‘letting it all unfold and be as it is’ while intuiting my little part in it, but never seeking for what ‘I can get out of it.’ Except for awakening, of course.

Link to last Sunday’s Weekly Gathering, as mentioned above: 

MY THOUGHTS

I really appreciate Regina’s example. It helps me see more clearly what it looks like to use this lesson in a practical way. I am using it right now on a situation.