Lesson 164

Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.

What time but now can truth be recognized? The present is the only time there is. And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever there; not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ. He looks past time, and sees eternity as represented there. He hears the sounds the senseless, busy world engenders, yet He hears them faintly. For beyond them all He hears the song of Heaven, and the Voice for God more clear, more meaningful, more near.

The world fades easily away before His sight. Its sounds grow dim. A melody from far beyond the world increasingly is more and more distinct; an ancient call to which He gives an ancient answer. You will recognize them both, for they are but your answer to your Father’s Call to you. Christ answers for you, echoing your Self, using your voice to give His glad consent; accepting your deliverance for you.

How holy is your practicing today, as Christ gives you His sight and hears for you, and answers in your name the Call He hears! How quiet is the time you give to spend with Him, beyond the world. How easily are all your seeming sins forgot, and all your sorrows unremembered. On this day is grief laid by, for sights and sounds that come from nearer than the world are clear to you who will today accept the gifts He gives.

There is a silence into which the world can not intrude. There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost. There is a sense of holiness in you the thought of sin has never touched. All this today you will remember. Faithfulness in practicing today will bring rewards so great and so completely different from all things you sought before, that you will know that here your treasure is, and here your rest.

This is the day when vain imaginings part like a curtain, to reveal what lies beyond them. Now is what is really there made visible, while all the shadows which appeared to hide it merely sink away. Now is the balance righted, and the scale of judgment left to Him Who judges true. And in His judgment will a world unfold in perfect innocence before your eyes. Now will you see it with the eyes of Christ. Now is its transformation clear to you.

Brother, this day is sacred to the world. Your vision, given you from far beyond all things within the world, looks back on them in a new light. And what you see becomes the healing and salvation of the world. The valuable and valueless are both perceived and recognized for what they are. And what is worthy of your love receives your love, while nothing to be feared remains.

We will not judge today. We will receive but what is given us from judgment made beyond the world. Our practicing today becomes our gift of thankfulness for our release from blindness and from misery. All that we see will but increase our joy, because its holiness reflects our own. We stand forgiven in the sight of Christ, with all the world forgiven in our own. We bless the world, as we behold it in the light in which our Savior looks on us, and offer it the freedom given us through His forgiving vision, not our own.

Open the curtain in your practicing by merely letting go all things you think you want. Your trifling treasures put away, and leave a clean and open space within your mind where Christ can come, and offer you the treasure of salvation. He has need of your most holy mind to save the world. Is not this purpose worthy to be yours? Is not Christ’s vision worthy to be sought above the world’s unsatisfying goals?

Let not today slip by without the gifts it holds for you receiving your consent and your acceptance. We can change the world, if you acknowledge them. You may not see the value your acceptance gives the world. But this you surely want; you can exchange all suffering for joy this very day. Practice in earnest, and the gift is yours. Would God deceive you? Can His promise fail? Can you withhold so little, when His Hand holds out complete salvation to His Son?

 INITIAL INSIGHT: I am being encouraged in this lesson to set aside what I think I know and what I think I want, and in the space, this emptying out provides the Holy Spirit will place Salvation. In exchange for the little nothingness I have built my life around, I will know the Will of God and know that it is mine as well. I am encouraged to accept the Atonement now by letting go of the ego I made to take Its place.

I read something inspiring like this lesson, or a course from Pathways of Light, or something a teacher says in a class or workshop, and I am set afire. But it is not enough that I hear these words and recognize them as the truth that sets me free. I must then take them into my life and practice them on the circumstances that confront me. Without this practice, I will lose the truth I held for a moment in my mind. There is no way out of this work. No written or spoken word, however inspirational or true, is going to catapult me into my right mind unless I use it in my life.

I do not see the need to practice what I am learning as in any way opposing what Jesus is saying to me in this lesson. He says I can have salvation now and encourages me to make this the instant I accept it. I do this every time I notice that I am not in perfect peace and ask the Holy Spirit to correct my thinking. That willingness to be wrong and the desire to be corrected is the moment I decide for God. I have many such moments in my day.

In some moment, maybe a moment in this day, I will accept that all lessons are the same lesson, and my mind will be enlightened. I cannot make that moment come any sooner, I can only give my willingness for it and give my practice to it, and when I am ready it will be done through me. I am not guilty because this is not the moment and there is no reason for discouragement, though sometimes I do feel discouraged. I feel it, and I release it, and I open my heart once again and I am at peace.

DAILY APPLICATION: “What time but now can truth be recognized? The present is the only time there is. And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever there; not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ.”

I am one with God. Right now. Not at some later time am I one with God. Not after I have done something to make this happen, or come to deserve this through effort on my part. The work and effort I put into this is merely to bring me to the point of acceptance. I am already and always have been one with God and so I am That in this present moment. Not through my eyes, but through the eyes of Christ I see this. I come to this acceptance through my daily practice of releasing all that is not valuable. It is how the mind becomes clear so that I can see with the eyes of Christ.

“Christ answers for you, echoing your Self, using your voice to give His glad consent; accepting your deliverance for you.”

Jesus says that Christ answers for me, echoing my Self. I am for a moment confused by this. How is Christ and Self different? I think I understand, though. Christ refers to the Sonship as a whole, the entirety of the Sonship. Self is that entirety but also is part of that entirety. Here is a way I can express this. I can say Self is Christ, but my Self is a part of Christ. The part that is most important, that really matters in this, is that my voice (my Self, evidently, and not my self) must give consent but the Christ will accept my deliverance for me. So, my awakening is done by the Christ as my Self gives consent for it. What really matters to me more than understanding the descriptive words, is that I continue my practice until my mind is completely clear. In other words, I do what is in front of me to do in any moment.

We will not judge today. We will receive but what is given us from judgment made beyond the world.

The ego-mind always wants to judge and I am aware of the judgmental thoughts that come into my mind, but I am seldom interested in them and they leave without impacting me. Sometimes I notice a judgmental thought and it does interest me and it hangs around for a while until I realize that keeping that thought and giving it my attention is how I keep the ego in place. Then I let it go.

Open the curtain in your practicing by merely letting go all things you think you want.

This is my constant practice. I let go of all things I think I want. That brings up a question in my mind. What things do I still want? Those things obstruct what I could have instead, the remembrance of my oneness in God. I want my children to be safe. I want them to live happy lives. I want them to outlive me. The first thought is that there is nothing wrong with wanting this for them. It is the loving thing to do, and how could I want otherwise?

And yet, I have seen that wanting this for anyone is suffering. They have their script to play out and it is not likely to be any different than mine. It will look different, but it will still reflect the unhealed mind and so it will have its share of suffering and it will go where it goes. Wanting it to be different will not make it different and will only cause me suffering.

Knowing this has not alleviated the suffering I have experienced because I resist this knowing. But I am practicing acceptance. I think of something painful that could happen to one of my children and if I follow that thought I find myself in a story and all stories lead to suffering. However, if I have that thought and I am not interested in it, the thought falls away and I have just grown in willingness and understanding.

INSIGHTS FROM HOLY SPIRIT: Here is a conversation I had with Holy Spirit a few years ago that was about valuing the valueless and about judgment.

Holy Spirit, I wonder when the world is going to disappear for me.

Holy Spirit: The world will disappear when there is nothing in it that you value. What do you now still value, Myron?

Me: I want to pay off my debt. I want to finish writing my book. I want my body to be healthy and pain-free. I want financial security. I want someone to be at fault when things go wrong. I want someone else to blame when I feel guilty. I want to be loved and appreciated. I want fewer things to do and more time to do them. Those are some of the things I can think of.

Holy Spirit: These goals stand between you and salvation. While you give value to anything in the world, you will not be willing to release it. Do not be discouraged by this, or feel guilty. You need to see what stands in your path so that you can give it to Me. When you are ready, I will stand beside you, and together we will look at the baubles that so hold your attention. You will see that you have been asking the ego for the meaning of life, and together we will laugh at the absurdity of your decision to do this.

Me: Holy Spirit, I asked the ego what it means that I want to lose five pounds. It says that I want to be able to get into my dress clothes for the conference and that if I can’t I will have to shop for new stuff and it will be hard to find something. It says that I will not feel good about who I am if I don’t look good in my clothes and that people at the conference will judge me, and rightfully so if I weigh too much. It says that I will be found wanting and that I will be less than those who are thinner and more attractive. It says I won’t be liked, admired, and respected if I am too heavy. It says that my salvation from this awful fate is to lose weight.

Holy Spirit, I am asking you for the meaning of this situation.

Holy Spirit: Myron, In your willingness to look at the ego’s purpose, you make it possible to see the contrast between that purpose and the truth. Through your willingness to see, I will show you how to use this “problem” to help you awaken. The ego says that losing weight is important, that you must do this, and that your happiness depends on accomplishing it. I say that you can lose weight if you want to because the “weight problem” is in your mind.

This is what the ego does not want you to know. It wants you to be identified as an individual with the special problem of not being able to control your weight. The ego says that you have a weight problem caused by something outside your mind and the only way to fix it is to manipulate those things. In this way, you get to keep the problem. Even if you decide to lose those five pounds, after the conference you will drag that tired old problem out and use it again and again to prove your specialness.

It was hard for you to look at this because you know that clarity is the beginning of the end for the ego identity that you made for yourself. And yet, you chose to look at it anyway. That is the purpose of the world when you look on it with Me; to see how you are using it to prove you are an individual, different from others, and special in good and bad ways. The ego uses everything that happens to you to prove this is true. I use everything that happens to you to show you that it is not true. To the ego, the purpose of the world is to prove that you are condemned for separating from God. To Me, the purpose of the world is to show you that it does not exist outside your mind and that you can choose differently.

GRATITUDE: I cannot believe how hard it was to ask You about this simple thing. I kept telling myself that it was a silly question and that You did not want me to ask about something so petty. I told myself that I could not hear Your answer, that I could not understand Your answer. I allowed my mind to wander to other things. I thought about how late it is and how I needed to get to work. But I also saw that I can be quietly persistent in asking, and so can change my mind about listening. I saw that I cannot make this happen, but I can allow what is in my mind to surface.

REGINA’S TIPS

Yesterday we compared the impermanence of problems with the eternal nature of the Self. Today, we will continue to focus on the Self. Today, we will let our desires remind us to turn our attention to life-presence.

Today’s lesson encourages us to be faithful in our practice. It says, “Faithfulness in practicing today will bring rewards so great and so completely different from all things you sought before, that you will know that here your treasure is, and here your rest. Now is the balance righted, … The valuable and the valueless are both perceived and recognized for what they are. … Open the curtain in your practicing by merely letting go all things you think you want. … Is not Christ’s vision worthy to be sought above the world’s unsatisfying goals? Let not today slip by without the gifts it holds for you …; you can exchange all suffering for joy this very day. Practice in earnest, and the gift is yours.”

Here is how we shall practice in earnest today:

Whenever you notice that attention has gone to a desire, whether it seems to be a small, insignificant desire or a bigger, seemingly more important one, pause. Turn attention inward to life-presence. Be aware of awareness. Look at it. Does it have a desire now or is it simply presently being? Rest with attention on awareness-life-presence, noticing it for a few moments.

After spending a few moments noticing life-presence, notice that desire comes from attention on thought, not from awareness-life-presence. Notice that awareness-life-presence simply is. Notice that thought wants something different or something more.

Earlier this year, we read NTI Romans, Chapters 2 & 3. These chapters described the beginning of the ego as the wish for something different than what is.

As you look, notice that wish for something different than what is, is in thought. And then look again at awareness-life-presence. Notice that awareness-life-presence is what is. Notice it is always present, simply being what it is.

Notice thought is an object that you can be interested in or not interested in, but either way, thought is not you. You are the one interested or not interested in thought. Notice you are awareness-life-presence. Say to yourself slowly, “Now I am one with my Source.”

MY THOUGHTS

Sunday on June 7, 2020 at 2:00, my brother died. He and I spoke once or twice every week. Since his death 5 days ago, I have had moments of grief and I have cried, sometimes I have just felt a heaviness that I recognize as grief. Today, I posted an announcement for his funeral and the grief overwhelmed me for a few minutes. I have learned not to deny or suppress my feelings so I let them come.

I also notice that even while I am crying, I am aware of the crying. That which is aware is what Regina calls awareness-life-presence and I just refer to as my Self. My Self knows this is a story and my Self knows it is the observer, the watcher, and not the character in the story. It is a strange feeling to be so distinctly distanced from my self. I still feel the emotions but I know I am not the emotion. I notice the mind wanting to think about what is happening but I just return to the pure emotion. Once the emotion of grief has passed, I take time to reflect on myself as Awareness. Awareness or Self now feels more like me than Myron feels like me.