Lesson 232
Be in my mind, my Father, through the day.
Be in my mind, my Father, when I wake, and shine on me throughout the day today. Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with You. And let me not forget my hourly thanksgiving that You have remained with me, and always will be there to hear my call to You and answer me. As evening comes, let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your Love. And let me sleep sure of my safety, certain of Your care, and happily aware I am Your Son.
This is as every day should be. Today, practice the end of fear. Have faith in Him Who is your Father. Trust all things to Him. Let Him reveal all things to you, and be you undismayed because you are His Son.
INITIAL INSIGHT: I read this and felt joy at the thought. In fact, my first reaction to be in my mind, Father, was to think, be my mind, Father. Every day now seems better than the day before. I can’t really say why, it just does. I was with Eleanor and Susan yesterday afternoon after my calls for the day. Again, I had the most delightful time playing with her and I was there completely in the moment.
Susan had to take her to the doctor to see about a persistent cough. I told her I would go with them to keep them company. In the moment again, at the doctor’s office. No thoughts of what I had waiting for me to do at home, or impatience with the waiting. With the doctor just in the moment there.
He told me I must have done something right raising Susan because she was such a good mom. I said with enthusiasm that yes, she is a great mom! A much better mom than I ever was! Susan said no that’s not true that I was a good mother, too.
There was a time when that exchange would have felt different to me. I would have eaten up their words because I so desperately wanted them to be true or at least for it to appear true to others. Yesterday, though, I was just delighted that Susan is such a good mom. There was no “me” with all its baggage getting in the way of my delight.
I can’t say with honesty that God is the Mind with which I think all the time now. But that is becoming true more and more is that God is the state of being joyful and present and free of the past. I look forward to seeing what it feels like when there is no self at all to get in the way. Today, I will be grateful to know God is in my mind and to know it is being further purified of any fear or doubt that remains there.
DAILY APPLICATION: I hardly know what to add to this most beautiful of all prayers. Every day my experience of being loved by God grows and with it, my love for God expands. I am filled with gratitude for a Father Who loves His Son even as His Son dreams of being separate. The dreaming mind pushes the love of God away and fills the gap with grievances, but God remains untouched by my delusions. He simply continues being Love.
This is the model I use in my daily life. If I seem to see others as enemies, I ask the Holy Spirit to help me see as God sees. I ask that I might recognize their complete innocence and simply be the love I was created to be; wholly untouched by anything that appears less than love. I am protecting my healing as I am vigilant for a return to ego thinking.
If I seem to be hooked by an ego grievance I look within. Is there something within myself that I am projecting outward? I’ve noticed that sometimes when I have a reaction to someone it is because they are reminding me of something in me, I don’t want to see. They may be acting in a way I used to act but failed to forgive in myself. They may be acting in a way that still holds some appeal to me and so I am disturbed to be reminded.
I have learned that as I forgive this energy in myself there is nothing within me to project onto the other person and so I am able to see that person free of my projections. This must be how it is for the Holy Spirit. He has nothing within Him except love and so He sees nothing but love. Each time I am willing to practice this kind of forgiveness, I come closer to experiencing myself as God created me.
Holy Spirit, I am willing to look at every grievance, no matter how small it seems, no matter how deeply I have hidden it within my mind. I want to ferret out all grievances, everything that is not pure love, and allow it to be healed. I dedicate myself to this practice and I ask that You be with me in each moment that I do this. You are my Guide and my Courage and my Strength. I place my trust fully in You.
I was drawn to the sentence that says today we should practice the end of fear. I started practicing that yesterday. Well, everything in the Course points to this, but I started thinking about it in a different way yesterday. Last night just before I went to sleep, I had the thought that I have nothing to fear because of what I am. I asked the question, “What am I?” The answer is that I am a divine being. And of course, that answer is the reason I have nothing to fear.
The ego-mind reminds me of all the things I have to fear, but it is actually telling me of all the things the ego has to fear. I am not the ego so it has nothing to do with me. I only fear when I think I am an ego. That is why Jesus keeps telling us we are not a body. All we are doing here is learning to transfer our identity from the illusory body-self to our reality, to our divine-self. I am not an ego-body, I am a divine being.
The ego is afraid of everything because it believes it is a frail and fragile body with an easily damaged psyche. “I” on the other hand, am perfectly safe and perfectly protected and cannot be hurt. I am love itself and there is nothing besides love. Can I be overcome by too little time, which does not actually exist? Can I be hurt when the body is hurt? I am not the body. Can death destroy me when I am immortal?
Can a body appetite control me when the body I imagine does not actually exist outside my imagination? If I imagine the body, I must also imagine the cravings it experiences, the sicknesses it suffers, the desires it succumbs to. Should I no longer choose to experience these things, I need only stop imagining them. If this seems hard to do then I am obviously using the idea of “hard” to keep the story in place. I am never a victim because I am the maker of it all. I am reminded, once again, of my favorite sentence in the Course, “You but do this to yourself.”
The following is a short but very helpful message I received a few years ago.
INSIGHTS FROM HOLY SPIRIT: Thank you for your faith and your trust. It is not misplaced. You will find that you need not ferret out grievances; your desire to heal will bring them up in your mind and show them to you. All you need to do is pay attention. Notice your feelings which will alert you to false thoughts in your mind, grievances to be healed. Close your eyes to the story which wants to distract you from your purpose. Instead, look for the grievances, the judgments, fears, guilty thoughts, and all other obstacles to love, knowing you want only to let them go. God is in your mind today and every day. Give your willingness to release all that hides His presence from your awareness.
GRATITUDE: I am over-the-moon grateful for the legions of Helpers who have guided and uplifted me and brought me to this point in my life.
REGINA’S TIPS
Please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” to contemplate Lesson 232, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:
Be in my mind, my Father, through the day.
Throughout this section of A Course in Miracles Workbooks for Students, we are using this process:
1 – Each day read and contemplate the “special theme” that we are currently working with. Currently that theme is, “What is Salvation?”
2 – Contemplate the day’s workbook lesson.
3 – Spend time in meditation.
4 – Recall the day’s workbook lesson hourly.
5 – Spend at least a brief time with the workbook lesson and/or meditation before going to bed at night.
Maybe you’ve remembered to follow all five steps in this current process, maybe you’ve forgotten part of it, or maybe you decided to skip part of the process because you thought it wasn’t important for you. Today is an opportunity to recommit to the entire process that is requested in this section of the workbook.
I look at it this way: We have been vigilant for the ego. However, we joined this group because there is a calling in us. The calling is to be vigilant for salvation. It’s what we want. That’s why we’re here, so let’s do it.
NTI Luke, Chapter 5 says:
“Old habits must be let go, for old habits will not usher in a new day. With old habits, all things remain the same. But with new habits, all things are possible.
I have come to teach you new habits. You will learn these habits by practicing them as I ask. Remember Me, and practice.
You will catch yourself practicing the old habits, for this has been your way until now. Slipping into old habits does not ruin the new ones. So when you find yourself doing this, forgive yourself your attraction to the old by stepping away from the old and stepping into the new. Each time you do this, you help yourself to unlearn the old and to learn the new.”
So today, let’s remember our desire for salvation and recommit to practicing the workbook lessons in the way the workbook asks us to.
MY THOUGHTS
I love this simple and gentle process from NTI. I notice that we are asked to notice when we slip back into old ways, but I also notice that we are encouraged not to be upset by that slip, just to return to the new. Releasing the idea of guilt is so important to this practice. When we notice an error, we make a giant step forward, but if we feel guilty for the error, our step forward is very small. The ego loves this, but we are not here to please the ego. We are here to undo the ego.