Lesson 356
Sickness is but another name for sin.
Healing is but another name for God.
The miracle is thus a call to Him.
Father, You promised You would never fail to answer any call Your Son might make to You. It does not matter where he is, what seems to be his problem, nor what he believes he has become. He is Your Son, and You will answer him. The miracle reflects Your Love, and thus it answers him. Your Name replaces every thought of sin, and who is sinless cannot suffer pain. Your Name gives answer to Your Son, because to call Your Name is but to call his own.
Journal
This is an uncompromising lesson in what it says about sickness. First, I am going to acknowledge that all sickness is of the mind first, and is then manifest within the world as physical, mental, and emotional sickness. It is also sometimes manifest as sick relationships and lack and loss. These are all effects of a sick belief system.
Second, sickness is another name for sin means that it is another name for error. The mind is mistaken in its beliefs and the effect is sickness. Healing is another name for God is my favorite sentence in this lesson. When I call for healing, I am declaring my union with God and commanding that all be set right as is His design. When we call for a miracle, we call for God to be present in the situation and thus what was mistakenly done would be undone.
Father, You promised You would never fail to answer any call Your Son might make to You.
Are we willing to accept His answer? That is the only question. Do we feel worthy? Are we willing to give up control? Are we willing to set aside our personal will and accept our true will which is in perfect alignment with the Will of God, which is, actually, exactly the Will of God? What stands between you and the acceptance of God’s answer?
2 It does not matter where he is, what seems to be his problem, nor what he believes he has become. 3 He is Your Son, and You will answer him.
Right here, right now, however we see ourselves, God answers us. We don’t have to meet any criteria that make us feel worthy. We don’t have to wake up to be answered. We are answered because we ask, because we are His Son. Let nothing you believe about yourself hold you back from turning to your Father for healing, not for yourself and not for anyone else.
Just because we dream of separation does not mean we are separate. We are one with our Father and this has not shifted even a tiny little bit because of our fantasies. Everywhere we see the effects of the belief in separation is an opportunity to forgive it, undo it, accept the Atonement for it. The error is not personal. The miracle is not personal. Every error is waiting for the miracle of our love to correct it. What a way to live within the illusion, performing miracles with every heartbeat simply by calling to God in perfect trust and faith.
Regina’s Tips
Direct experience is different from belief, and belief is different from faith.
As we have already seen, faith is important on the spiritual path. We cannot know the direct experience of what lies ahead of us. The fact that it “lies ahead” means it is not our experience yet.
When we have faith in the direct experience of masters, we are motivated to continue this journey so we can find out for ourselves. Faith is a motivating factor.
However, belief has an opposite effect. Belief is intellectual. When we believe something is true, we do not have a driving motivation to find out. We think we know.
Belief is a type of delusion, where one pretends to know what he doesn’t know.
Direct experience is the only means of knowing. It is firsthand experience.
My Thoughts
When I first began to read A Course in Miracles, I had no reason to believe what it said. I had no direct experience of awakening. I did have faith, though. I had faith that I was reading the truth even though I had no reason to believe it. That’s what faith is. Still, if I had not had a direct experience of a mind healing, I would have given up on it and decided it wasn’t true after all. It is the direct experience that matters. I still move forward on my spiritual path trusting that there is more but seeking that direct experience as proof.
2016
This year I was attracted to this sentence: Your Name replaces every thought of sin, and who is sinless cannot suffer pain. What a lovely promise. This is why I keep vigilant for my thoughts, and why I am willing to be corrected every time one of them is an ego thought. My ego mind believes in sin and believes that I am sinful. All its thoughts are thoughts of sin because all its thoughts are based on separation. As I continue to undo this kind of thinking, I am discovering that beneath that dark cloud is a light that I never imagined could be in me. It is the light of sinlessness and it was always there. I want to be painless. I want to be happy. I want to return Home. So I keep letting go of everything that blocks that light, and slowly at first, and then steadily for a while, and now more quickly, I am becoming aware of my innocent self.
2017
No matter what form sickness takes, whether it seems to happen in my physical body or my emotional body, in a relationship, or in my bank account, it is simply a reflection of wrong-minded thinking, the belief in sin. If I did not hold to the belief in separation there could be no sickness of any kind. Thus when I call on God it is not to heal my body or any other form of the illusion, but to heal my thoughts. In calling on the name of God, I am choosing another teacher. The healing of the body is not a miracle, but the change in my mind, which comes from making this new choice, is indeed a miracle, and thus the healing of the body is witness to the miracle.
The more often I make this choice the more quickly I experience the effects of a changed perception. As the day wore on yesterday, and I spent more time in crowded stores shopping and less time remembering the purpose I had given the day, I became tired in body and mind. When I went to bed I noticed I had been feeling mildly anxious and despondent. I didn’t feel like thinking about it and went to sleep. What I have noticed is that if I fall asleep with unresolved issues they play out in some form of symbolic dreaming and make for a restless night. So a part of my day and my night were affected by my decision not to choose God.
This morning I woke up in an ego fog. Nothing particular bothered me; it was just a general sense of things not being as they should. I was not happy to be awake, nor did I want to go back into more restless sleep. I lay there for a moment and talked to Holy Spirit about it. First I was grateful that this is unusual for me. Waking up in a bad mood was, at one time, a way of life. Sometimes it happened and sometimes it didn’t and I thought I was a victim to my mood, having no idea where it came from or what to do about it.
Then I remembered that I call to me what is in my life by choosing the ego as my teacher. I didn’t remember choosing ego, but when I become unconscious and simply allow my mind to wander where it will, and choose to believe the thoughts in the mind, I choose ego by default and that is what I did yesterday. This morning I woke up with an ego hangover. But just as I chose ego and the affect was anxiety and despondency, I am equally free to choose God and this choice produces different affects. I felt an immediate lifting of my spirit. I felt happy to be awake. The miracle happened quickly and without effort on the part of my little self.
I think the reason it happens so much more quickly now, is that I am not resisting it like I used to. Now it is more like remembering that this is what I want rather than talking myself into believing this is what I want. Occasionally I get stubborn and believe that I know better than God, in which case I go into fear and it is harder to bring my mind around to acceptance. But often, it is just a matter of remembering what I want, then being willing to quickly accept the truth as it comes. I love You. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank You.
2018
Yesterday, I had some pain off and on that, in the world, seemed to be the effect of physical labor. I thought about taking something for it, but instead, I chose to remember that pain is the result of guilt or as Jesus says in this lesson, it is another name for sin. I asked for the miracle of healing my mind of the belief in guilt and punishment. As a result of letting go of the idea that guilt is real and that I deserve punishment in this situation, yesterday was a good day. I did have pain from time to time, but I did not suffer. I would take little breaks and when I felt rejuvenated, I went back to work. I am pleased with all that I got done and look forward to finishing it today. And I look forward to another day of mind healing whatever form that takes. I look forward to basking in my sinlessness. I feel so joyful today! Thank you, God. I Love you, God.