5. Rest and Relax - love is waiting to come in

Deep within you is everything that is perfect,
ready to radiate through you and out into the world.
A Course in Miracles Lesson 41


Who we are
We have forgotten the truth of who we are but the truth has not forgotten us.  It is patiently waiting for us to accept it back into our mind's awareness. It has never been lost, only forgotten.

You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awaking to reality.
A Course in Miracles T-10.I.2:1

In the Course God's creation is called Christ. This creation is outside time and space and is therefore eternal. God can only create like Itself and therefore we share all the attributes of God - thus we are formless, perfect, eternal spirit.

The truth about you is so lofty that nothing unworthy of God is worthy of you.
A Course in Miracles T-9.VII.8.4

This is our natural state and if we did not get in its way it would simply become apparent to us. If we could rest and relax, let go of our investments in thinking and judging, the natural state would simply dawn upon us.

Seek not outside yourself. For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls. Heaven cannot be found where it is not, and there can be no peace excepting there.  ........  Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found. What if it is not there? Do you prefer that you be right or happy?
A Course in Miracles T-29.VII

To seek outside for love and peace and happiness implies that we cannot be whole within. Our ego counsels that to achieve this great goal and find the Kingdom of Heaven must entail a great deal of effort on our part. To be told we need only to rest and relax will therefore make no sense to us. Surely, we think, the more effort we put in the faster we will attain our goal. This also implies that we know best how to find our way home. And is this true?


I need do nothing.
To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. Into this place the Holy Spirit comes, and there abides.

A Course in Miracles T-18.VII.7:7-8

To make a place within you for the Holy Spirit is the Course's path of forgiveness. To be guided by the Holy Spirit requires the mind to be quiet so you can hear His voice. You cannot hear His voice if your mind is full of judgement, whether of yourself or others. Forgiveness is not easy. It requires vigilance, awareness and a recognition that the problem is in our mind and not in the world. This is not brought about by dozing in bed all day but in the active 'classroom' of relationships.

To do anything involves the body. And if you recognize you need do nothing, you have withdrawn the body's value from your mind. Here is the quick and open door through which you slip past centuries of effort, and escape from time.

A Course in Miracles T-18.VII.7:1-3

When the Course states you need do nothing it means that we allow Jesus or the Holy Spirit to do the doing and not us. We no longer do things on our own but allow Spirit to work through us.

"I need do nothing" does not mean you won't do anything. This could result in a very active life but as you are not the doer you no longer feel tired. Instead of working from ego energy your strength comes from a higher source. You will no longer do things from guilt and you will never be in a hurry. You will lose the sense of urgency in what you do.

But do we still need to make plans, you may ask. Our mind hates the idea of being left out of the decision-making process. However, the Course sees this differently.

A healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to Wisdom that is not its own. It waits until it has been taught what should be done, and then proceeds to do it. It does not depend upon itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfil the plans assigned to it.

A Course in Miracles Lesson 253

When plans are needed they will be given at the right time and place. We are being asked to get out of the driving seat, to reduce the function of the thinking mind from trying to sort everything out and simply follow plans from a higher source.

A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part.
Nisargadatta Maharaj


Striving
When we wish to pursue materialistic goals in this world, then striving can be of value. We may wish to attain a degree at university. We need to work hard and put in a long hours of effort. But to transfer this approach into the area of spirituality, has been referred to as 'spiritual materialism'. It doesn't work. Only egos strive.

You surrender the doer, the understander.
Just rest and relax. It's a letting go.
Letting everything be as it is right now.
Relaxing releases you from the ego.
Adyashanti

Most of us have many desires. We believe once we achieve our desire we will be happy. So it seems to make sense to put in a lot of effort to achieve the desired outcome. But is it really the fulfilment of desire that creates happiness? Only the ego can have desires. At the moment the desire is fulfilled in that moment ego is absent. In the absence of the ego only Spirit is left in our mind. It's the happiness of Spirit that we experience at that moment. That happiness comes from our natural state. If we were to let go our attraction to the ego, through the forgiveness of judgement in our minds, we would come to experience a causeless happiness. This is the only happiness worth having.

Stop trying to wake up. Let go of effort. Trying has to do with time, with the desire to bring about change. You’re awake, you’re awake. You just don’t know it. Know it. That’s all. Stop trying to become what you already are. Relax. Relax yourself into a piece of cooked spaghetti.
The trying is the problem. All it does is provide distraction from seeing what is. It actually causes harm. Why are there all those stories about how it was only when the person gave up, exhausted, that it finally happened, that the blinders finally came off?
But don’t give up so that it will happen. Just give up because you’re worn out. Because it feels good to rest. It feels good to be what you are. That’s the whole thing. Stop trying to become. Just be.
Let the spiritual journey come to an end.
Jan Frazier
When Fear Falls Away
Resting and relaxing.
Enormous effort is expended in the attempt to make holy what is hated and despised. Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy. 

A Course in Miracles T-18.VI.4:8-11

The spiritual self we are trying to cultivate will never feel adequate because it will still be the ego - now wearing spiritual clothes. We are doomed to suffer a lack of self-worth until we realise that what we are trying to create is false. How could we possibly improve on the perfection of our Christ self? It has been nothing but a hopeless journey of arrogance.

Stopping unnecessary mental doing allows the natural state to arise. Deep stillness always rests under an agitated mind.
Relax. Resting mind activity disarms gross identification. There is no "how" to stop thinking. Simply stop getting involved in the stories of your thoughts. Stopping is not a doing, not a technique, not to be learned. Neither is it a big deal. Just be quiet, be still, and stop participating in the imaginary world created by your thoughts. There is no identification when the mind is not engaged with thoughts; no suffering is a consequence of no identification.
Jac O'Keefe

For the natural state to arise in our awareness, there must be a measure of peace in our minds. While our minds are addicted to judgement, this is impossible. The Course's path to peace is forgiveness.

Forgiveness... is still, and quietly does nothing. ... It merely looks, and waits, and judges not.
A Course in Miracles W-pII.1.4:1,3

Through watching our minds without judgement, insight will dawn upon us. Seeing the pain we cause ourselves through judgement, we will start to learn to simply stop doing it. Once we clearly see the link between a loss of peace and judgement we will never ask for a 'how to' technique again.

You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment.
A Course in Miracles T-3.VI.3.

Thus the question "How do we stop judging?", will no longer come up. When as child we discover that touching a flame creates pain, we don't ask our parents what is the method not to touch flames. We have a direct insight - touching the flame will cause pain, so we don't do it again.

There is nothing to fix, nothing to do, nothing needs to be better, nicer, or in a certain way, all that stuff is just thoughts, there's no need to take any interest in it. How things are is just fine. Rest. Rest on the inside.
Jac O'Keefe

As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind's compulsive contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being will come more clearly into your consciousness, welcoming you to rest and abide. An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness, and reveal them to be your natural condition.
Adyashanti

The people whom I have quoted in this article, including the person who wrote the poem below, have all had a deep awakening and share the same message. I feel the following poem is a wonderful summary of the theme of this article.

The truth comes to you of its own free will
when you prepare yourself through deep surrender
to your Self, giving up all attachment, giving up your body, your mind, and everything that's important to you, to the Self.
As long as you're holding on to anything,
the Reality will evade you.
The Reality only comes when you give up yourself,
when you give up your ego,
when you give up your needs, your wants,
trying to make something happen, desires.
When you give up trying to become Self-realized.
When you just give up.

Then something wonderful happens.
You begin to expand.
Not your body, but the Consciousness which you are.
You become all pervading, Absolute Reality.
It happens by itself.
from Silence of the Heart by Robert Adams.



6. Love and Fear - Are Both Real?
Advaita and A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles is written on two levels – metaphysical and practical. Metaphysics is the study of what is real and what is false, what is true and what is illusory. To understand the Course you have to understand the metaphysics. However, it would be a mistake to try to apply these metaphysical teachings to our day-to-day lives. Some examples of this ‘error of level confusion’ will be given at the end of the article.

The meaning of the term Advaita is non-duality, not two. A Course in Miracles is an example of a pure non-dual source system. In a dualistic thought system light would be real and dark would be real, love would be real and fear would be real. In a non-dual core system only light would be real, and its absence would be darkness. Similarly, only love is real and its absence is fear.

To illustrate this imagine a windowless room with the door closed and the light off. If a lamp is now turned on, what happens to the darkness? Does it hide under the carpet, or go behind an object? No, it simply ceases to exist. Now imagine the same room with the light on. Can you bring a lamp of darkness into the room? Would it make the room go from light to dark? No, that would be impossible because darkness is not real, it is simply the absence of light.

On the first page of the text in A Course in Miracles is the following non-dual statement:
The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
T-in.1

Here it states that only love is real, and its absence is fear. On that same page there is a two-line summary of the Course. It states, “nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists”. Love cannot be threatened because it's real, it is the essence of who we really are. When we forget that fear appears to be real. If nothing unreal exists, fear is an illusion. But we can believe it's real. The Course seeks to wake us up from our world of unreality.

A creator can only create like itself. As God is eternal and formless so must be His Creations. As our entire universe including ourselves is form and not eternal, God could not have created it or even know of its existence. Our universe of time and space is an illusory mental creation where we can play our painful game of separation. When we finally tire of this game and long to go home to unity we will wake up and realise it has all been a dream. Nothing here will have the power to make us feel fearful ever again, including the death of our body, for we would have remembered our eternal, formless reality - the Christ that God created.

The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt.  Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so.  For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain.  Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted.They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel. If this were the real world, God would be cruel.
T-13.in.1.(The Guiltless World)

There is a version of Advaita which could be called an impure form of non-duality. In this version God is aware that this universe is a dream but he delights to play in it. It is his universal playground where he experiences everything that time and space has to offer. Life starts millions of years ago as single cells which struggle through enormous trials and pain to now and continue onwards. All the while God is delighting in the variety of life he has created. This implies He would enjoy being a torturer and the one being tortured! The following quotes give a very different perspective on God.

The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is fear except love's absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him.
W-pII.3.2.   

The world you see is an illusion of a world. God did not create it, for what He creates must be eternal as Himself. Yet there is nothing in the world you see that will endure forever. Some things will last in time a little while longer than others. But the time will come when all things visible will have an end. 
Clarification of Terms C.4.1

When I first grasped the non-dual teachings of A Course in Miracles I was disappointed that God is not personally looking after me as He is not aware of my mind and body. I no longer had someone to look after my health and bank balance. But then I saw that if He knew about this universe it would be real and eternal and there would be no escape from the pain here.

Can we do anything to wake up?

Enlightenment happens like an accident. Spiritual practice makes you accident-prone.
Zen master.

Teachers of non-duality seem to fall into one of two camps. These could be called the help and no-help camps, or the ‘something can be taught’ and ‘nothing can be taught’ approaches. Some modern non-dual teachers say you can't practise anything because there is no one to practise; you can't choose anything as there is no chooser. Life is just living through you and delighting in the experience. Some will wake up others will not. These teachers say the only benefit they can provide is by pointing to the truth and by your being in their presence. Other Advaita teachings - which includes the Course - disagree. Choices can be made and must be made. We must decide whether we want to listen to the counsel of the ego or the Holy Spirit in our mind. We must decide if we want to go throughout the day watching, as much as we can, everything without judgement - which is the Course’s definition of forgiveness. It asks us to smile gently at our ego  behaviour. This is a choice and something we can do.

I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace.
I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.
I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.
I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.
I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me
T- 5.VII.6:7-11

Great teachers of non-duality like Ramana Maharshi recognised that people who came to him were all at different levels and needed a different response to their questions. He likened them to three types of fuel. There were those who were like coal. Coal needs a prolonged heat before it catches alight. For these people Ramana might suggest a mantra, or simply looking at the picture of a their guru. Others he likened to damp wood. For these people he would suggest the spiritual discipline of self enquiry, asking "Who am I?". The last group he likened to dry tinder. This fuel only needs a spark to catch alight. For them Ramana only needed a silent look to awaken them.

In the same way, A Course in Miracles is written on different levels. There is something for everyone there. In places you will read that God is sad that we're not with him, and cries for us. That is very comforting for people who come from a spiritual tradition of an angry God that seeks to punish them for any minor transgression. But elsewhere in the Course you will read that God is not aware of us as the mind and body. In other places we're told to study the Course with seriousness and application. But lesson in 189 we are told:

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this Course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.

I think it is a compassionate approach to recognise that students are all on different levels, requiring differing kinds of assistance. Certainly the Course recognises this as illustrated by the next quotation:

Which is for which? Who would profit more from prayers alone? Who needs but a smile, being as yet unready for more?
M-29.2.   

I am valuing listening to modern non-dual teachers but am wondering if some have landed on a spiritually correct plateau of no-choice, nothing to do and no one to do it. Newcomers could end up rather dispirited, I fear, by this rather fundamentalist mentality. See this cartoon: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7262997/


Traps for Course in Miracles students - level confusion

After understanding Advaita teachings in the Course, one can easily falling into the trap of ‘level confusion’ by applying the metaphysical teachings of non-duality to the practical level of our daily existence. The ego is happy to use anything to maintain its existence.

The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. Its abilities can be and frequently are over evaluated.  However, it is almost impossible to deny its existence in this world. Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial.
T-2.IV.3.

The ego’s chief defence mechanisms are denial and projection. It can happily misapply the Course’s metaphysical teachings on non-duality to reinforce denial. Here are some examples that I've heard of to illustrate this point.

During the time of the first war in Iraq a Course in Miracles group was going around stating "What war - it's only a dream. Nothing is really happening, we just asleep in heaven dreaming all of this". While this statement is correct at the highest level of the teachings it was being used by their egos to help deny the fear they felt about war and death. If the whole Course group was suddenly lifted up and transported to Iraq and placed on a road where they were being approached by an Iraqi tank firing guns on them would they still say "What war?". I feel sure they would all be running in the opposite direction very fast.

Another group I heard of had a member who was dying of cancer and was in hospital. The whole group visited and stood around her bed and chanted from the Course - "I am not a body. I am free." (Lesson 189)  They told her she could have a miracle, leave this bed, and come home with them now. What they did not realise was that this was a particularly vicious form of ego attack on their friend. They could not see their own fears around cancer and death, denied them and then projected them onto their friend in bed. What was really needed was them to give comfort, listen to their friend’s fears, wipe her tears, check on her pain relief, medicine, etc.

Lastly, I've heard of Course students at funerals going around telling people cheerfully "There is no death!". True, but hardly the right time and place to make this point. When you lose someone close to you grief is natural; it should not be suppressed or denied through metaphysical teachings. You may fully realise there is no 'death', and even have proof of the 'survival' of the person who has died. The grief is for our self, for losing someone we were close to.

I remember seeing a poster once where the Dalai Lama said his teaching is simple, it is kindness.  If we remember that we can't go far wrong.



7. Seek Not To Change The World

It (the world) is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition.  As a man thinketh, so does he perceive.  Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. 
A Course in Miracles T-21.in.1


The World Is Neutral.

A major teaching of A Course in Miracles is that the world is neutral. It has no meaning in and of itself. We give it meaning. There are only two meanings, either the Holy Spirit's or that of the ego. The ego is the thought that being separate is preferable than being one with everything. The Holy Spirit's thought system is that we are perfect, sinless, eternal spiritual beings and that the apparent world of separation we seem to live in is an illusion.

The ego rushes in to give the world meaning. It sees it as a place where it can find pleasure, gratification, status, power, prestige, etc. The Holy Spirit sees the world as a classroom of forgiveness.

The Course teaches that before we look out into the world we should first look within our mind. What we see there we project out into the world. If we look within and only see the ego thought system, then when we look out we inevitably see the world of the ego. This is a fearful perception, because we know we'll try to get what we want seeking only to give the minimum in return. Thus we also see people with similar motives as ourselves, and feel we need to protect ourselves from the world which only wants to take from us. In contrast, if we look within and see Spirit there instead of ego, we will have the Holy Spirit's judgement on the world. The Holy Spirit sees people either asking to love, or giving love. There is nothing else.

The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference—the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds. "Projection makes perception" (Text, p. 445). We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it is we are seeing. If we are using perception to justify our own mistakes—our anger, our impulses to attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take—we will see a world of evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair.  A Course in Miracles. Preface

This takes us to the crux of the first quotation above. The world itself is nothing. If we get upset at what we see in the world this is a 'red flag' to what upsets us in our mind. If the actions of the dictators in the world upset us, this points to an unhealed dictator in our own minds. If while watching the news there is a report of a murder and we get upset, that shows us that we believe in murdering to get what we want. We may not actually physically murder, but we do believe that attack will get us what we want. The Course states that even a mild irritation is a veil drawn over intense fury (Lesson 21). For there are only two thought systems in our mind, the ego's and the Holy Spirit's. The ego believes in kill-or-be-killed, and the Holy Spirit believes in forgiveness.


Right and Wrong.

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
William Shakespeare

Out beyond ideas of right doing
and wrong doing there is a field.
I will meet you there.
Rumi

Seeing all the pain and horror in the world, it is very easy to fall into the trap of seeing things as right or wrong, or good or bad. This judgement comes from the ego thought system present in our mind. In contrast, the Holy Spirit's judgement is that He sees people either asking for love, or giving love.

In my book The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness I recount the true story of a man called Wild Bill who survived six years in a concentration camp. When he entered that camp, after witnessing his wife and children being shot, he made his mind up that he would try to love everyone he met. He did not take sides which is the hallmark of the ego. To his eyes everyone was asking for love and this he tried to give and succeeded. The Americans who liberated the camp saw that he had more energy than themselves whereas he had been on a starvation diet and lived in horrendous conditions.

Yet of this you may be sure; if you will merely sit quietly by and let the Holy Spirit relate through you, you will empathise with strength, and will gain in strength and not weakness. A Course in Miracles T-16.I.2

The above story is a great example of the Course's teaching that this is a neutral world - this camp turned out a saint.  By laying aside the ego's judgement of right and wrong, Wild Bill entered a space where he could be of true help to the world. The energy became available to him because it was no longer blocked by judgement. Once the ego is laid aside wisdom and love simply radiate through us. This does not mean the Course condones concentration camps and thinks them ideal training grounds for saints. The Holy Spirit does not seek to change anything in the world, but does seek to help us see it as a classroom of forgiveness where we can finally awake to our spiritual reality. This is what the Course means by accepting the atonement - to awaken from the dream of separation.

When Wild Bill laid all judgement aside he could not know in advance how he would behave in any situation that he was daily presented with. He was relieved of the responsibility and burden of trying to work out what proper help would look like.The following true story from Adyashanti's book Falling into Grace nicely illustrates the same point.

One of the most significant moments in my life occurred during my first Zen retreat. On the third day of the five-day program, the retreat leader, Kwong Roshi, told a story. In the story, he recounted a time that he had recently spent in India. He was standing in the middle of a dirt road in a little village, and he was watching some kids play at the side of the road. He noticed that there was one child with a deformed face and that the other children were teasing him. The boy was an outcast. Kwong just watched this poor little boy, and he said, “You know, I just stood there, and I didn’t know what to do, and so I just started to sob.” Even as he was recounting the story, sitting in this regal meditation posture, with his robes and beautiful Zen style, he was very openheartedly weeping. It was then that I really knew of the quality of his heart and also of his courage. Here was one of the greatest spiritual authorities in Zen openly sitting there and weeping, without contracting, Without hiding his face, without shying away. He had been deeply touched by this little boy’s pain, and he stood there on the road wondering, “What can I do for him?”

 After a moment or two, he decided to walk over toward the boy. As they did not speak with same language, Kwong grabbed his hand, and they stood there in the middle of the street together, hand in hand. Kwong then noticed an ice cream shop. He walked the boy over to the shop, and he reached into his pocket and gave the boy some coins. He indicated that he wanted the boy to buy ice cream for all the other children, as well as for himself. When the little boy indicated to all the others that he would buy them ice cream, he immediately became the hero, the center of attention. Instantly, the village children enfolded him in happiness, love, and acceptance. This little boy bought them all ice cream, and they were all smiling. For a moment, this little boy who had been outcast and sad was happy, and he was once again part of the group. This was the only thing that Kwong knew to do at that moment. It was a small gesture, but it was an example of the power of an open heart and mind. Even when he didn’t know what to do, somehow, intuitively, because his mind was open, he just walked up and took the little boy`s hand in his own. To me, this is an example of enlightened action. This is an example of how the mind may not be able to figure out how to respond, but how the open and awakened heart can take the lead and offer something beautiful in the moment.


Changing the World.

When we feel impelled to change the world we see, we need to step back and ask ourselves what's going on here?  Are we just giving the ego a purpose? To feel pleased and proud about our good intentions?

Trust not your good intentions. They are not enough.
A Course in Miracles T-18.IV.2.   

There are many charities in the world. I am glad they are there. Many millions on this planet are suffering, and are in great need of assistance.  But what if through some miracle starvation was eliminated overnight and many charities are then disbanded? Would all the workers in those charities feel happy and relieved, or would an emptiness come into some of their lives as they no longer have a purpose?

Of course, if you have a chance to help somebody, by all means do it and promptly too, don't keep him waiting till you are perfect. But do not become a professional do-gooder. Nisargadatta Maharaj

We may be drawn to charitable work or to save the planet. The test of motive is when the work that is done does not give the hoped-for results. If this leads to disappointment and perhaps anger or sadness, then the motivation was from the ego. If instead, after working hard on a project and seeing it fail our peace is unaffected we will know we are not attached to results - which is a clear sign of ego motivation. There are only two thought systems, the ego's or the Holy Spirit's.

The Love of which I am speaking, arises directly out of a profound depth of realization. It has nothing to do with doing the right thing or being a good person. Such notions come from an egoic mind masquerading in spiritual clothing. I am speaking about a force of Love that originates from beyond the mind -- from consciousness itself.
Adyashanti - The Impact of Awakening www.adyashanti.org

In one of my workshops three of the participants were Social Workers. They came to me one day and said they had been talking together and realised that all three of them were motivated by guilt. This is a wonderful thing to see because they can can forgive this in themselves and allow the possibility to either continue the work from a different perspective or to simply leave the job. 

Forgiveness  ... is still, and quietly does nothing. .... It merely looks, and waits, and judges not. A Course in Miracles W-pII.1.4:1,3

Their insight now allows them to see they to need to approach their work on two levels. The first and most important level is that they are doing this to learn forgiveness, to find peace. The second and less important level is to do the job efficiently. The world becomes their classroom of forgiveness. The Social Workers can see their clients as their teachers and can try to learn to be at peace with them. If they succeed they will become a source of healing.

The therapist sees in the patient all that he has not forgiven in himself, and is thus given another chance to look at it,open it to re-evaluation and forgive it. Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practise - P-2.VI.6

For many years I have taught  A Course in Miracles, and given many workshops on healing. I've also published two books and maintain a website and newsletter. I received some guidance a few years ago that said "we beseech thee to the stop working for the good of mankind."  This startled me somewhat at the time, but now makes complete sense.  Previous to this work I was an electronics teacher. In those days I simply talked from my head. I think I was a satisfactory teacher but did not connect strongly with the students. When I start teaching healing and a Course in Miracles I saw quickly that I had to change. So over many years I've learned a lot about trust, and opening my heart. This is the purpose of my teaching, and if other people benefit from what I say then that's a wonderful bonus.

The only meaningful contribution the healer can make is to present an example of one whose direction has been changed for him, and who no longer believes in nightmares of any kind. The light in his mind will therefore answer the questioner, who must decide with God that there is light because he sees it. A Course in Miracles T-9.V.7

The purpose of my work is to learn forgiveness. For someone else it may be the path of the parent, the road worker, the gardener, etc.  If a mother could master the constant forgiveness lessons in her daily life she would awaken to her spiritual reality in a very short time!

For 20 years I lived in and around a spiritual community in Scotland, called the Findhorn Foundation. I noticed that many were drawn to helping, or serving the world. I don't think we often stepped back and said "Why am I doing this? Is this a spontaneous outpouring of love, or am I being motivated by guilt, or to be seen to be good, fill an empty life, doing what's expected of me, etc?"

In the early days of Findhorn there was a saying "Work is love in action". However, I often noticed that really it was "Work is guilt in action." I worked for a time in the Personnel department, and part of my job was interviewing prospective new members. I knew I was supposed to ask them if they had come here to serve. I preferred to ask them had they come here to learn to serve. I think service, like true love, is unconditional: you either do it or you don't.

Unconditional love is virtually unknown on this planet. Only the true saint that no longer has an ego, and that only has spirit in her mind can spontaneously radiate true love and service. It would be a great mistake, leading to more guilt, to think we have achieved that when we have not.

You cannot enter into real relationships with any of God's Sons unless you love them all and equally. Love is not special. If you single out part of the Sonship for your love, you are imposing guilt on all your relationships and making them unreal. You can love only as God loves. Seek not to love unlike Him, for there is no love apart from His. Until you recognize that this is true, you will have no idea what love is like. A Course in Miracles. T-13.X.11.

I remember reading the story of Mother Teresa when she and her nuns opened up a new home for the destitute in New York. The local charity group came round to see her and appreciate her for her work. They thanked her for her social work. She looked surprised and said "I don't do social work." They replied that she was helping the homeless and the sick. She sternly replied "I don't do social work, that's me I'm picking up out of the gutter!"  Here is a clear demonstration that she so she saw no difference between herself and others.

If we lack awareness of our true motives, we can easily fall into becoming a 'rescuer'. I think all people who are drawn to healing, have the shadow side of the rescuer which needs healing. That might take a long time to see, because in this society rescuers are often rewarded. They seems to be good and true and selfless beings spending their lives helping others and trying to make the world a better place. However, they may feel taken for granted but continue their work as they need to be needed. Rescuers see the people they help as weak and unable to help themselves. In fact they don't want them healed as they would no longer need to be needed. This is not true help but an attack. Instead, they really need to empathise with the strength in the other person, to show them that they are sinless and have the strength of spirit in themselves..

The only help worth giving is freeing from the need for further help. Repeated help is no help at all. Do not talk of helping another, unless you can put him beyond all need of help.

You can help another by precept and example, and above all, by your being. You cannot give what you do not have and you don't have what you are not. You can only give what you are - and of that you can give limitlessly.
Nisargadatta Maharaj

A comparison of true and false healing from the Course's perspective can be found on my website -  http://www.acfip.org/huh.html.

The following conversation between the great spiritual teacher Ramana Maharshi and a stutent summarises some of the issues raised above.

F.H. Humpries. Master can I help the world?
Ramana Maharshi. Help yourself and you will help the world.
H. I wish to help the world. Shall I not be helpful?
R. Yes Helping yourself you help the world.You are in the world, you are the world.You are not different from the world, nor is the world different from you.
H. [after a pause] Master can I perform miracles as Sri Krishna and Jesus did before?
R. Did any of them, when he performed them, feel it was he who was performing them?
No Master.
From: The Master Speaks By Tony Crisp


Our Purpose Here Is to Awaken.

Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth striving for can hurt you, and will do so. Not because it has the power to hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real. A Course in Miracles T-26.VI.1:1-2

When I first read this in A Course in Miracles I was rather perplexed. Surely, I thought, to have a healing centre is a good and valuable thing? I'd fallen into the trap of thinking Jesus wants us to do 'good works', and go out and heal the sick. If that is your forgiveness path then by all means do it. I needed to remember I was doing this basically for myself, to learn to heal myself  by helping to heal others.

My late wife Salice was born with an inner voice and sometimes I would turn to it for guidance. I remember asking it what is the purpose for writing my first book, Healing the Cause. The voice said "To bring you closer to me, and incidentally it can help others." Later when I was contemplating starting a Course in Miracles centre in Tasmania I asked the same question. "What was the purpose of this centre?" Again the voice said "To bring you closer to me, and it may help others."

The sole responsibility of God's teacher is to accept the Atonement (wake up) for himself. Atonement means correction, or the undoing of errors. When this has been accomplished, the teacher of God becomes a miracle worker by definition. A Course in Miracles M-18.4:5-7


Seek Not to Change the Ego

The ego's plan for salvation centers around holding grievances. It maintains that, if someone else spoke or acted differently, if some external circumstance or event were changed, you would be saved. Thus, the source of salvation is constantly perceived as outside yourself. Each grievance you hold is a declaration, and an assertion in which you believe, that says, If this were different, I would be saved.
A Course in Miracles Lesson 71

 As well as the Course asking us not to try to change the world, but instead change our minds about the world, it also asks us not to try to change our own egos or other's egos. This would be an example of making the error real. The error in this case is that the ego is seen as real and needs ours attention. The ego loves to get our attention and doesn't mind being accused of being the villain as long as we treat it as real. It knows that its life depends on us believing in it. And once we cease believing, as we will one day, it will simply disappear. The ego is an illusion and is simply maintained because we think it offers something we want i.e. separation. So to try to modify and change our egos or another's is to make it real and thus continue its illusory life. Instead the Course asks us to accept people exactly as they are. This does not mean that if a person is physically attacking you don't simply stand there and passively accept it. If in that moment you have laid aside all judgement of the other person you'll be guided what to do. But if you have not reached that stage of welcoming guidance it may be better just to run! The Course does not ask us to abandon common sense.

If we sincerely want to help others we need to remember who the true source of help is. Our task then is to get ourselves out of the way so this help come come through us and out into the world. As we learn to heal and help others so we will be healed.

The Holy Spirit is the only Therapist. He makes healing clear in any situation in which He is the Guide. You can only let Him fulfil His function. He needs no help for this. He will tell you exactly what to do to help anyone He sends to you for help, and will speak to him through you if you do not interfere.
A Course in Miracles  T-9.V.8



8. Breaking the Spell of Thought


Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything.
Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.
A Course in Miracles Lesson 189


We enter this world with no self-image. As time goes by we gradually create one. What we create depends upon our conditioning, religion, race, sex, experiences in life, whether we are loved or not, our education, and many other factors. We are actually a bundle of memories, habits and conditioning. All of this is thought. If these thoughts are believed then we have created a self.

As we acquire new experiences the image of oneself changes. If we experience trauma in our lives, this may lead us to feel we are a victim. Old thoughts we once believed in will be released, and new thoughts will be taken on. In this way, the images of ourselves constantly changes. If we do not step back and watch this image, and see it as but a thought we believe in, we will lead our lives as if in a trance.

A Course in Miracles asks us to forgive this image, to stand back and look at it without judgement. In this way it starts to lose its power over us. The identification with this image is normally very strong in us. It does not appear to be an image, but who we really are. If someone says to us something that contradicts the image we hold, this can be quite painful. Our egos will inform us that this is unjust, and counsels us to attack.

Thoughts have no power in themselves. It is when we believe in them that they become important and affect our lives. If we look back upon our lives we will discover thoughts we took very seriously then, but no longer do. What has changed? The belief in the thought as being true and important.

If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian of your thought system and open it to me, I will correct it very gently and lead you back to God.
T4.I.4:7

 We spend much time protecting and defending our self-image. After all, this is what we believe we are.  Our security lies in what we believe to be true. If our thought system is threatened, our security is threatened. When Jesus preached in Palestine, he strongly challenged the thought system of the priesthood. This produced a strong insecurity and fear in their minds. His message of love was seen as a threat and had to be attacked.

If we study various cultures, we quickly find that what is important in one culture is unimportant in another. If we also look at just one culture, but in different time periods of its history, again we will see that what was deemed important once may no longer be so.

The Course teaches us that our true identity is the Christ. We are eternal, formless, perfect spirit. We are not bodies and personalities. We are not male or female. This is all body identification. All the labels we ascribe to ourselves are thoughts that we believe in, and we are happy to go to war to defend them. My religion versus your religion, democracy versus communism, etc.

 The Course wants us to stand back and look at all the images we have created over our lives and ask ourselves - are these true? Or are they just thoughts we have given importance to for a while. As Byron Katie has said "Who would we be without our story?".

The world can teach no images of you unless you want to learn them. There will come a time when images have all gone by, and you will see you know not what you are. It is to this unsealed and open mind that truth returns, unhindered and unbound. Where concepts of the self have been laid by is truth revealed exactly as it is. When every concept has been raised to doubt and question, and been recognized as made on no assumptions that would stand the light, then is the truth left free to enter in its sanctuary, clean and free of guilt. There is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this:
I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.
Yet in this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you of Itself.
T-31.V.17.

Whilst our mind contains powerful images of who we think we are, there is no space for truth to enter, as the above quote points out. There's great fear associated with letting go who we think we are.  We believe that without our self-created image we would be nothing. But these images stand in front of the truth and obscure it.

As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part.
Nisargadatta Maharaj

How can all this be changed so truth can dawn upon our minds and we can remember the peace of God? If the images we hold about ourselves were created by taking thought seriously, we can reverse the process. We are so used to giving serious attention to the thoughts that arise in our minds. Instead, we could watch these images arise but without taking them as being important. Our thoughts are accustomed to be taken seriously. What would happen if we paid less attention to them? They would not be 'fed'. Thoughts coming and going in our mind would start to be treated like various odours coming in and out of our nose.

Forgiveness  ... is still, and quietly does nothing. .... It merely looks, and waits, and judges not.
W-pII.1.4:1,3

We need to break the spell of thought. We have thoughts, but we're not our thoughts.

You do not know the meaning of anything you perceive. Not one thought you hold is wholly true. The recognition of this is your firm beginning. You are not misguided; you have accepted no guide at all. Instruction in perception is your great need, for you understand nothing. Recognize this but do not accept it, for understanding is your inheritance. Perceptions are learned, and you are not without a Teacher. Yet your willingness to learn of Him depends on your willingness to question everything you learned of yourself, for you who learned amiss should not be your own teacher.
T-11.VIII.3.

The mind has a very important function.  None of us could survive in the world without it. The American teacher Adyashanti refers to that aspect of the mind as "toolbox mind." You need it to read this article, drive a car, understand the computer. If the mind could stay in that sphere of operation everything would be fine. However, we seek to use it in areas that is not designed for. It should not tell us who we are. That will be revealed to us when our mind becomes quiet.  As the quote above emphasised:

Yet in this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you of Itself.
T-31.V.17.

The truth of who we are cannot be learned through the mind. All images of ourselves just block the awakening to truth. If we think we know who we are, truth must wait. We need to give God a gap. Our ceaseless thinking and image-making draws a veil across the truth. As we start to challenge our mind by not taking the images it creates seriously we start to starve the mind. Eventually, the mind will revert to its true function, a wonderful practical tool to help us live life here.  Now a space has been created that allows the intuitive wisdom of spirit to guide our lives.

What is hidden deep in our innermost being lies in silence and stillness, and in the silence of the deep springs the eternal, inexhaustible, original source of all being. Countless words trouble the soul; where words fall silent, the everlasting begins. Keeping inwardly silent before God is the implicit precondition for perceiving the everlasting within us. If God is to speak, then all thinking, imagining, and supposing must stay quiet. All faculties must remain silent and prepare a place of inner stillness for God to speak in us.
Wolfgang Kopp - Free Yourself of Everything



9. Jesus and A Course in Miracles


Throughout A Course in Miracles we are repeatedly told that we have an inner guide, like an inner autopilot ready to help  us and take us home.  Letting this guide assist us in our daily lives is the fast road to spiritual awakening.  It asks us to drop the hand of the ego and pick up the hand of the Holy Spirit, or Jesus.  Jesus is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.  The Course states that he is always with us, and will be there until the end of time.  He waits with endless patience for that time in which we will turn to him to help.  But how reluctant most of us are to seek his advice.  Is he really there? Can I trust him? What if he asked me to sacrifice something? Why doesn't he speak up? Can I really trust him with my bank account?  These and other questions fill our minds.

Below I have taken some of my favourite quotations about Jesus from the Course. 


Need Not Believe in Jesus to Study A Course in Miracles

•Is he God’s only Helper? No, indeed. For Christ takes many forms with different names until their oneness can be recognised. But Jesus is for you the bearer of Christ’s single message of the Love of God. You need no other. It is possible to read his words and benefit from them without accepting him into your life. Yet he would help you yet a little more if you will share your pains and joys with him, and leave them both to find the peace of God. M88
Like all great teachers, Jesus doesn't ask us to believe in what he says, he simply points the way and asks us to try.

• This course has come from him (Jesus) because his words have reached you in a language you can love and understand.  Are other teachers possible, to lead the way to those who speak in different tongues and appeal to different symbols?  Certainly there are.  Would God leave anyone without a very present help in time of trouble; a savior who can symbolize Himself?  Yet do we need a many-faceted curriculum, not because of content differences, but because symbols must shift and change to suit the need.  Jesus has come to answer yours.  In him you find God's Answer.  Do you, then, teach with him, for he is with you; he is always here. M59
The Course describes itself as one of many thousands of spiritual paths.  It is certainly not meant for everyone. It is written  at quite a high intellectual level, and most find it initially difficult to understand. It requires much rereading, a life time's study. This approach does not appeal to many.


Jesus - Equality with Us

• It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice (the Holy Spirit ) and no other.  It takes effort and great willingness to learn.  It is the final lesson that I learned, and God's Sons are as equal as learners as they are as sons. T75
If it was Jesus's last lesson to pass everything over to the Holy Spirit, then this shows us how strong our opposition is to being helped and guided.  However, as we begin this path of turning within and asking for help we find that it works and this reinforces our efforts.

• There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else.T7
Jesus is not special. He has woken up to his spiritual reality, and now seeks to help us achieve the same goal.

•The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ (the Course's symbol of total forgiveness) in all his brothers and remembered God.  So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God........Is he the Christ?  Oh yes, along with you.  M87

•Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom. T7

•I am constantly being perceived as a teacher to be exalted or rejected, but I do not accept either perception of myself. T54
The world either treats Jesus as an object of special hate or special love. We either put him on a pedestal (special love) or we attempt to bury him underneath it (special hate).  He asks for neither.

•I have assured you that the Mind that decided for me is also in you and that you can let it change you just as it changed me. T77

•My mind will always be like yours, because we were created as equals.  It was only my decision that gave me all power in Heaven and earth.  My only gift to you is to help you make the same decision. T77

• I can be entrusted with your body and your ego only because this enables you not to be concerned with them, and lets me teach you their unimportance.  I could not understand their importance to you if I had not once been tempted to believe in them myself.  Let us undertake to learn this lesson together so we can be free of them together.  I need devoted teachers who share my aim of healing the mind.  Spirit is far beyond the need of your protection or mine.  Remember this:
In this world you need not have tribulation because I have overcome the world.  That is why you should be of good cheer. T56
Jesus understands us because he once thought like we did. Otherwise, he could not help us.

• When you unite with me you are uniting without the ego, because I have renounced the ego in myself and therefore cannot unite with yours.  Our union is therefore the way to renounce the ego in you. T147
To pick up the hand of Jesus, you must first release the hand of the ego.


Need to Forgive Jesus

•I have great need for lilies, for the Son of God has not forgiven me.
Jesus is well aware that we have made some bitter idols of him. We fear we must follow his example and be crucified so that we may find God. As he suffered so we believe we must suffer and sacrifice. This is a fearful teaching, and thus we come to fear Jesus. Jesus stands for God in this world, and we project our authority problem onto him. We say "I don't need your help Jesus, I can do everything by myself."

 •And can I offer him forgiveness when he offers thorns to me?
Jesus does not withhold forgiveness but we can no longer accept it when we resist him.

 •For he who offers thorns to anyone is against me still, and who is whole without him? T426
An attack on anyone is an attack upon all, including Jesus


World Fears and Rejects Jesus

•The world must therefore despise and reject me, because the world is the belief that love is impossible. T144
Jesus is an example of unconditional love and thus threatens our ego-based thought system.

 •If you will accept the fact that I am with you, you are denying the world and accepting God. T144

 •My will is His, and your decision to hear me is the decision to hear His Voice and abide in His Will. As God sent me to you so will I send you to others. And I will go to them with you, so we can teach them peace and union. T144
Jesus is asking us to lay aside our ego, and let him speak through us to others.


Need to Trust in Jesus

• You have very little trust in me as yet, but it will increase as you turn more and more often to me instead of to your ego for guidance. The results will convince you increasingly that this choice is the only sane one you can make. T67
The proof of the pudding is in the eating - it works!


No Salvation Through the Death of Jesus

• I am made welcome in the state of grace, which means you have at last forgiven me.
Grace is our natural state, the awareness of Heaven.

 For I became the symbol of your sin, and so I had to die instead of you.
We deny our "sins" and project them onto Jesus - hoping he is now punished and not us. We are off the hook!
 
To the ego sin means death, and so atonement is achieved through murder.
Believing our errors to be a sins we then think God will punish us with death.

Salvation is looked upon as a way by which the Son of God was killed instead of you.

Jesus dying for our sins lets us of the hook. Someone must be punished.

Yet would I offer you my body, you whom I love, knowing its littleness? Or would I teach that bodies cannot keep us apart?
Mine was of no greater value than yours; no better means for communication of salvation, but not its Source. No one can die for anyone, and death does not atone for sin. T411

Jesus wants to share his mind with us, not his body.


Jesus as a Model and Helper

• I am the model for rebirth, but rebirth itself is merely the dawning on your mind of what is already in it. T93
Rebirth is not the resurrection of the body, but the awakening of spiritual knowledge in the mind.

• I will love you and honor you and maintain complete respect for what you have made, but I will not uphold it unless it is true.  I will never forsake you any more than God will, but I must wait as long as you choose to forsake yourself.  Because I wait in love and not in impatience, you will surely ask me truly.  I will come in response to a single unequivocal call. T61

•When I said I am with you always, I meant it literally.  I am not absent to anyone in any situation.  Because I am always with you, you are the way, the truth and the life.  You did not make this power, any more than I did.  It was created to be shared, and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as belonging to anyone at the expense of another. T116

•I will teach with you and live with you if you will think with me, but my goal will always be to absolve you finally from the need for a teacher.  This is the opposite of the ego-oriented teacher's goal.  He is concerned with the effect of his ego on other egos, and therefore interprets their interaction as a means of ego preservation.  I would not be able to devote myself to teaching if I believed this, and you will not be a devoted teacher as long as you believe it. T54

• I said that I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.  That is why I am the light of the world.  If I am with you in the loneliness of the world, the loneliness is gone.  You cannot maintain the illusion of loneliness if you are not alone.  My purpose, then, is still to overcome the world.  I do not attack it, but my light must dispel it because of what it is.  Light does not attack darkness, but it does shine it away.  If my light goes with you everywhere, you shine it away with me.  The light becomes ours, and you cannot abide in darkness any more than darkness can abide wherever you go.  The remembrance of me is the remembrance of yourself, and of Him Who sent me to you. T144

• When you are tempted to yield to the desire for death, remember that I did not die. You will realize that this is true when you look within and see me. Would I have overcome death for myself alone? And would eternal life have been given me of the Father unless He had also given it to you? When you learn to make me manifest, you will never see death. For you will have looked upon the deathless in yourself, and you will see only the eternal as you look out upon a world that cannot die.T233


Fear of A Course In Miracles

• Spirit need not be taught, but the ego must be. Learning is ultimately perceived as frightening because it leads to the relinquishment, not the destruction, of the ego to the light of spirit. This is the change the ego must fear, because it does not share my charity. My lesson was like yours, and because I learned it I can teach it. I will never attack your ego, but I am trying to teach you how its thought system arose. When I remind you of your true creation, your ego cannot but respond with fear. T53
As we open to the light, the ego becomes afraid. It knows that at some point, we will drop its hand. The Course warns us the ego will move from suspiciousness to viciousness. While the thought of separation appeals to us, the ego thought system will live on.  The ego is the thought of separation.

Helen Schucman,  the scribe of A Course in Miracles, was well aware of this dynamic:

I could neither account for nor reconcile my obviously inconsistent attitudes.  On the one hand I still regarded myself as officially an agnostic, resented the material I was taking down, and was strongly impelled to attack it and prove it wrong.  On the other hand I spent considerable time in taking it down and later in dictating it to Bill, so it was apparent that I took it quite seriously.  I actually came to refer to it as my life’s work.  As Bill pointed out, I must believe in it if only because I argued with it so much.  While this was true, it did not help me.  I was in the impossible position of not believing in my own life’s work.  The situation was clearly ridiculous as well as painful. 
(from Helen’s unpublished biography.)


Serving Jesus - Apostles Of Jesus

•For this alone I need; that you will hear the words I speak, and give them to the world. You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands through which I save the world. W330

This does not mean to teach the principles of A Course in Miracles to other people. What it does mean is teaching (by practising) forgiveness rather than judgement in our daily lives.

•Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating that I live in you. T209


10. Uncaused Happiness

God's Will for you is perfect happiness because there is no sin, and suffering is causeless. Joy is just, and pain is but the sign you have misunderstood yourself.     
‘A Course in Miracles’  Lesson 101

A Story
Once there was a piece of ice floating in the ocean. It had led quite an interesting and full life, but had recently become disturbed by a sense that there was something more to life. For some time, it had been on a spiritual search and began to hear that its true reality was something called ‘water’. It started to search for this water, but was not quite sure what it was or where to find it, having been told that water was without shape, was soft, and that you could easily move through it. A great puzzle to the ice; when it examined itself, it found that it had a shape, was hard and was certainly not fluid. This prompted discussion with other bits of ice and many long debates on the subject.

In time, the ice floated into warmer water and was alarmed to find itself becoming smaller. A great fear overcame the ice, for it believed that it was dying. It started to pray for help. One day, it heard a reassuring voice say that all was well. The voice said that the ice was no different from the water in which it floated, and although this made little sense to the ice, it felt it could trust the voice. The voice explained that, instead of dying, it was becoming one with the ocean. The ice still feared it was being asked to sacrifice something - its individuality. It felt it still had things to do in the world - things to achieve, experiences to have. The voice said that it could return to the colder climates if it wished, but the oneness that it was beginning to experience would haunt it until one day it would return to these warmer climes, and finally allow itself to dissolve and join fully. It was told that no true happiness lies in the world of separation; that the only happiness worth having is uncaused happiness.

This ‘ocean’ that the ice feared is actually happiness and peace, and will always be there waiting for us.
    (Thanks to the teacher Mooji for the original metaphor.)

Seek not outside yourself. For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls. Heaven cannot be found where it is not, and there can be no peace excepting there.  ........  Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found. What if it is not there? Do you prefer that you be right or happy?
T-29.VII.1 T617

Although we seemed to have achieved the goal of separation and individuality we are left feeling that there is something missing in our lives, we do not feel ‘complete’. The Holy Spirit would tell us that what is missing is the oneness with all life and God. But fearing this Voice, we have only the ego thought system to turn to. The ego tells us that there is something lacking in us and we can only find it by looking in the world for it. We try to fill the bottomless pit in ourselves by plunging into work, eating, drinking, sex, entertainment and above all, by ‘falling in love’.

If happiness is our natural state, as the Course says it is, why do so few of us experience it? We are told we are still as God created us - at one with God joyful, peaceful, and happy.

This state of happiness can only exist in unity. Our experience, however, is one of separation. We have chosen uniqueness, specialness, individuality thinking this would be an improvement upon the state of unity. But now we find ourselves unhappy. The ego counsels us that we could be happy, but we will need to search for it. Now we are caught in the trap of desire. If only we can get what we desire we will be happy. But in the natural state, we have everything. No desire exists there. In fact, happiness is the absence of desire.

We think that once we achieve the object of our desire, we will be happy and for a short time we are. But is it really achieving the object of desire that causes happiness? What is really happening is the moment the desire is fulfilled, there is no desire. With the absence of desire we also experience the absence of the ego thought system and our natural state arises. The ego is no longer blocking it, at least for a moment, and we experience happiness. So it's never the fulfillment of desire that brings happiness but simply the absence of desire.

The personal self by its very nature is constantly pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. The ending of this pattern is the ending of the self. The ending of the self with its desires and fears enables you to return to your real nature, the source of all happiness and peace.
Nisargadatta Maharaj

If this is not understood (and few of us do understand it) then we will always turn to the ego for the solution to our unhappiness. The ego says "Seek but do not find" T-16.V.6. Of course, it never tells us this openly. It comes up with all sorts of grand plans to make us happy which never work. Instead we feel even more guilty which is its true intention. Guilt is the food of the ego. Forgiveness undoes guilt and starves the ego until it finally fades away.

This course has explicitly stated that its goal for you is happiness and peace. Yet you are afraid of it. You have been told again and again that it will set you free, yet you sometimes react as if it is trying to imprison you. You often dismiss it more readily than you dismiss the ego's thought system. To some extent, then, you must believe that by not learning the course you are protecting yourself. And you do not realize that it is only your guiltlessness that can protect you.
T-13.II.7:1-6

The purpose of A Course in Miracles is to teach us how to be at peace and happy no matter what is happening around us. It also teaches us that this is the last thing we want. One look at the state of our lives and the world will bear this out.

Why would we not want peace? There must be something we are very afraid of here - and there is. It will cost us everything we cherish: our individuality, our specialness, our need to be right, the seeming control over our lives or, in a word, our ego. The Course defines the ‘ego’ as the thought of separation, our desire to separate from God and do our own thing. The ego’s song is "I did it my way". The ego believes it knows everything needed to find happiness in the world and does not require any inner guidance, thank you. Jesus points out that we could progress quickly on the path to peace and happiness by listening to the ever-present help of the Holy Spirit, but we find the idea personally insulting (M-9.2:4). It implies that all our hard-won knowledge and experience in life counts for nothing when it comes to finding real joy. He goes further and states that if we believe we are bodies then we are insane. And how can the insane possible know how to find peace? They obviously need help from outside their deluded thought system. We are all psychotic to Jesus and all need his help to extricate ourselves from the pain and loneliness we are in.

The only way we can return to peace is to willingly give up the ego through the practice of forgiveness and turning within for help. But the ego is our creation, an idea the sleeping Son of God once thought was a very good idea (and still does). However, as the Course points out, our "tolerance for pain may be high but is not without limit." (T-2.III.3:5). To maintain the seeming separation from God is very tiring. To be at home in Heaven but pretend we are in time and space takes a lot of effort and we slowly begin to think there must be "another way".

Learn this, and learn it well, for it is here delay of happiness is shortened by a span of time you cannot realize. You never hate your brother for his sins, but only for your own. Whatever form his sins appear to take, it but obscures the fact that you believe them to be yours, and therefore meriting a "just" attack.
T-31.III.1.4:6

Each day we have a choice to make. We can say, "I want to be right and happiness is unimportant," or we can say, "I want to be happy and peaceful, I don't need to be right." We should never underestimate our desire to be right. This is how the seeming separation from God started. We thought we knew how we could have something even better than Heaven. The idea of separate beings who could play at being God sounded right. What we have discovered is a loss of peace and joy, but we don't want to admit to it, and continue to try to find that elusive happiness here in the world. We are right but no longer happy.

Each day when we awake we can see it as a classroom of forgiveness. We can understand that "I am never upset for the reason I think" (Lesson 5) and ask to see peace instead. We can learn to smile gently at the ego and take life less seriously. In this way we gradually undo the ego's grip on us and start to experience the quiet joy and peace that is always waiting for us.


(Some of the above material has been taken from the ebook A Course in Miracles - Explanations of Major Themes by Michael Dawson.)


11. Don't ask how to be at peace.
Rather ask, why do I leave peace?


If only you could see this.  Stop trying to change yourself.  You are so busy trying to change yourself (suffer less, be less attached, become enlightened) that you can’t see the forest for the trees.  Some of the really huge, light-blocking, preoccupying trees are your efforts to improve — as if the one you’re working to improve were who you are! 
Jan Frazier
Perhaps the most common question of the spiritual seeker, is "How do I find peace, truth, happiness, joy etc?" However, the Course states that our natural state, as God created us, includes all these things.

No one who truly seeks the peace of God can fail to find it.  For he merely asks that he deceive himself no longer by denying to himself what is God's Will.  Who can remain unsatisfied who asks for what he has already?  Who could be unanswered who requests an answer which is his to give?  The peace of God is yours.

For you was peace created, given you by its Creator, and established as His Own eternal gift.  How can you fail, when you but ask for what He wills for you? 
A Course in Miracles Lesson 185

If our natural state is peace, why are we not experiencing it now? This is a much more fruitful area to explore. As Lisa Cairns has stated, "To seek is to suffer". Of course, few of us escape seeking. The teacher Jac O'Keefe, realised when she awoke that, all the hard years seeking were not necessary. Yet she knew she still had to do them, to realise she did not have to do them.

Who is it that is seeking? It can only be the ego. The Course's definition of the ego is the desire to be separate. As a spiritual seeker, the desire to be separate is still there as we desire the fruit of the spiritual path – peace. But to be an ego means that we will never experience peace. After giving up a materialistic ego, we simply take on a spiritual one. The ego always has desires, except now they are spiritual desires. We used to seek for money and status and power but now we are seeking peace and love and joy. There is actually no difference. This is still desire. And while we have desires, will not have peace. The very last desire is for truth, God, peace and happiness. Yes, it is the highest desire but even this must go in the end. The ego desire implies looking outside ourselves for what we want. The Course says we already have it so why are we seeking?

Seek not outside yourself.  For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls.  Heaven cannot be found where it is not, and there can be no peace excepting there.  Each idol (substitute for God's love) that you worship when God calls will never answer in His place.  There is no other answer you can substitute, and find the happiness His answer brings.  Seek not outside yourself.  For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found.  What if it is not there?  Do you prefer that you be right or happy?  Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides, and seek no longer elsewhere.  You will fail.  But it is given you to know the truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself.
A Course in Miracles T-29.VII.1

What we need to become interested in is why we depart from our natural state of peace. When we wake up in the morning we may detect a moment of peace. Then the thoughts start to rise. Desires, fears, judgements, expectations, worries, hopes and the list goes on. The movement away from peace begins. Here is where vigilance is required. Here is where forgiveness is required.

Forgiveness  ... is still, and quietly does nothing. .... It merely looks, and waits, and judges not.
W-pII.1.4:1,3

You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgement. When you recognise what you are and what your brothers are, you will realise that judging them in any way is without meaning.
T-3.VI.3:1-3

We make a decision to leave the peace, and then we ask how we get to peace. This is the craziness of ego thinking. With vigilance, you can see the thoughts that lead us away from peace start up. We can observe these without judgement - what the Course means by forgiveness. This does not mean these thoughts stop, though this could happen. Our task is just to notice them, to gently smile at them which takes their power away. By watching, as much as we can, these movements away from peace, the likelihood of the awareness of peace is greatly increased.

The ego loves to ask questions, and to seek for ways to accomplish what it wants. Yet the dictum of the ego is "seek and do not find" (T-12.V.7.) The ego asks endless questions but doesn't really want a true answer. A true answer that is followed will cause the ego to dissolve. And the spiritual seeker is still an ego, and the bottom-line is that any ego wants to continue.

To find peace we must arrive at the end of seeking. The desire to wake up and be liberated means the seeker is still present. Even that desire must be given up. It can be hard to see that pursuing the highest truth is still an obstacle to truth. It seems such a noble pursuit. But who is doing the pursuing? It's still an ego with an object of desire. And the spiritual ego will still pursue truth until the day comes when insight shows the futility of what it's doing. Once spiritual seeking is seen for what it is it loses its foothold. This is why most people will continue seeking until they stop from exhaustion or insight. We need to give up hope.

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all.
Lesson 188

Paradoxically our pursuit of truth continuously moves us away from rather than nearer to our natural state of peace. It makes time real, because it puts awakening  in the future. This will also lead to the fear that by the time we die we may not have awoken. And then may come the fear we will be reborn again trapped by desire, either material or spiritual.

The older I am the more respect I have for the ego. In my younger days it was perhaps easier to spot its actions as it sought happiness in material goals. At first glance a spiritual ego sounds like an improvement, though nothing has changed. Happiness is still seen outside ourselves and we must seek to find it. If the years go by, and we do not awake, sadness and depression can easily come. This is the real goal of the ego, because we will still believe in it and continue to listen to its hopeless advice.

So instead of seeking the peace, the Course asks us to seek the obstacles to peace and forgive them.

The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance.
Intro, Text.

We have clouded this awareness with ego pursuits. Let's turn our attention to watching the games of the ego, smile at them and forgive them and wait patiently for the day when these ego thoughts will no longer be seen as important. Let's give up our search for enlightenment. Let's use the happenings in our daily life as a classroom of forgiveness and forget about the future. Forget about finding peace and enlightenment, give up all hope of this. Whether we wake up or not, this will lead to an ever increasing sense of peace and joy as we let obstacles go. Our natural state will appear more and more often to us. This will give us the encouragement to continue with our path of forgiveness. And after we have forgotten all about awakening and enlightenment, one day it will just happen in God's timing.

And then your Father will lean down to you and take the last step for you, by raising you unto Himself. T-11.VIII.15.   


12. How do I forgive?
 
Forgiveness  ... is still, and quietly does nothing. .... It merely looks, and waits, and judges not.
A Course in Miracles W-pII.1.4:1,3
 
At the heart of all true spiritual traditions is the concept of awareness. The spiritual path contained within A Course in Miracles is no different. Looking at the definition of forgiveness above, we see the stress on awareness. Awareness does not do anything and is still. It observes what is going on in the world and in our own minds. Awareness is not out to change anything. That is why it can wait. To look without judgement is the simplest definition of forgiveness.
 
Vigilance was required of me (Jesus) as much as of you, and those who choose to teach the same thing must be in agreement about what they believe.
A Course in Miracles T-6.V.C.9:9
 
Just be aware; that is all what you have to do, without condemning, without forcing, without trying to change what you are aware of.
J Krishnamurti
 
Watching is the key, nothing else matters, slowly slowly an understanding start growing, a witness arises and this witness is the bud of our being, the miracle that transforms, the miracle that heals, the miracle that gives birth to your authentic self.
Deeshan
 
The hallmark of the ego is that it takes sides. It states, "This is right, this is wrong, this is good this is bad". Forgiveness seeks to change nothing. This does not mean appropriate action cannot come from awareness. In fact, it's the only true action. While we look at the world and find ourselves appalled by what is wrong, what shouldn't be happening, what is not right, then we are limited in our helpful response towards it. Our judgements upon the suffering in the world actually closes our hearts. If we can look upon the suffering in ourselves and in the world without judgement, we enable a loving wisdom to enter our minds and direct our actions. A Course in Miracles calls this the Holy Spirit, or Jesus. There is no need to first judge the situation before you help. The Course reminds us that constant judgement is very tiring.
 
You are not really capable of being tired, but you are very capable of wearying yourself. The strain of constant judgement is virtually intolerable. It is curious that an ability so debilitating would be so deeply cherished.
A Course in Miracles T-3.VI.5.
 
All that we need to know any moment is available to us. But we must play our part, in removing the veils that separate us from that wisdom and love.
 
The Course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught.  It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance.
A Course in Miracles T-in.1.  
 
These veils are our judgements, our labels of right and wrong that we place upon the world. Just simple looking, with nothing added to it is required. This is not cold detachment, when our minds look for a place of safety, or retreat from the world.
 
Every day when we are awake, we could choose to view the world as a classroom of forgiveness.
 
Gently, gently, I trained my mind to suspend its processes and thoughts. Then (in the windless calm), the flame of the Lamp, shining steady and bright, Revealed my true nature unto me.
Lalla
 
We can decide to operate on two levels. The first and most important level is to forgive what happens throughout the day both in our minds and in the world we observe. Second is the practical level of getting achieved what we need to do for the day. We practice being aware without judgement. We try to watch everything without the intervention of the judgemental mind. This will allow an inner wisdom to rise and inform us what to say, what to do and where to go. Our minds should only be used for practical applications. This function of mind has been called "toolbox mind" by the American teacher Adyashanti.
 
What the Course asks of us is really very simple. However, we often find it difficult to carry out as it contradicts the ego's plan for salvation.
 
The ego's plan for salvation centers around holding grievances. It maintains that, if someone else spoke or acted differently, if some external circumstance or event were changed, you would be saved. Thus, the source of salvation is constantly perceived as outside yourself. Each grievance you hold is a declaration, and an assertion in which you believe, that says, "If this were different, I would be saved." The change of mind necessary for salvation is thus demanded of everyone and everything except yourself.
A Course in Miracles W-pI.71.2.     
 
We should not be surprised therefore that during our day judgement will continuously arise. The judgement, "I am failing to forgive" will also come. We may fall into the trap of listening to the ego and feel guilty for our lack of progress. In contrast, the Holy Spirit will guide us to forgive our lack of forgiveness. It's okay if we are not ready to forgive yet. This approach will still greatly speed the time when we can forgive. The Course does not ask us to stop judging, for this is impossible for us at the moment. It does ask us to try not to judge our judgements. Any judgement means the ego has returned.
Judgement here refers to value judgements like right and wrong and not to the judgements/decisions we all must make in life.
 
You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgement.
A Course in Miracles T-3.VI.3.
 
Another statement of forgiveness used in the Course is to learn to smile gently at our egos. This means to stop taking the ego seriously. There is no need to attack it, suppress it or deny it. We may still get angry many times in the day, but as we watch the anger without judgement we soften it. In time, as we learn to smile at the ego, we might say to ourselves “Here I go again. What's new? This is no big deal." This is great progress!
 
Step back from your experience. Observe yourself, your reactions, and everything that happens through the eyes of a compassionate witness. This is what it means to pay attention.
 Metta Zetty
 
If we look upon the ego as an iceberg of guilt, guilt that we normally project out onto others as it's to painful to become aware of in ourselves, then the approach of forgiveness will gradually cause this iceberg to melt. This iceberg has been hiding our true spiritual nature from our awareness. As it melts we become increasingly more peaceful and joyful, the hallmarks of our spiritual reality.
 
Awareness cleaned my mind to a polished mirroring.
The presence came near, and I knew that That was everything, and I nothing.
Lalla
 
Gradually we learn not to try to change our ego or other people's egos. We only try to change things we take as real. If we make someone's ego real then we forget their spiritual reality. Only one can be real, not both. And if we make another person's ego real, we will also make our own ego real as well. This does not mean we may not have to take action when in the presence of a violent ego, but our action need not be taken out of judgement. If we do not label then wrong or bad we create a space in our mind to receive the help we need which will also be for the highest good of the other.
 
If we can succeed in dedicating a major part of our day to practising non-judgemental awareness, we will be on a fast track to peace and joy.
 
This awareness, that is not thinking, if applied with great consistency, will cause the mind, thought, the dominance of mind, the tyranny of mind, to spontaneously collapse.  .... As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind's compulsive contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being will come more clearly into your consciousness, welcoming you to rest and abide. An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness, and reveal them to be your natural condition.
Adyashanti


13. Thinking Is Not Going To Get You There

Those who remember always that they know nothing, and who have become willing to learn everything, will learn it. But whenever they trust themselves, they will not learn. They have destroyed their motivation for learning by thinking they already know. Think not you understand anything until you pass the test of perfect peace, for peace and understanding go together and never can be found alone.   A Course in Miracles. T-14.XI.12.

When I was in my 20s, I lived in London. Most Saturdays would find me looking at books in esoteric bookshops, eager to find a meaning to life and discover inner peace. Over the years I must have collected more than 1000 books! I believed that one day I would find a book that contained the truth, and then I would really know.

I would read about all manner of fascinating subjects, and summarise and synthesise the information. I then set about creating a spiritual path for myself.  I received pleasure, stimulation and pride in doing all of this - above all else I was in control. I did not know anywhere else to look apart from the mind. Where do you go if you don’t go to the mind?

Although many of the books pointed to something beyond the mind, I did not seem to be directly aware of it. Looking back I realise I did have an intuition that I sometimes allowed to guide me, but I explained it away as part of my reasoning and logical mind. My friends would refer to me as Spock - the very logical Vulcan from the Star Trek series of the 60s. (I think they meant to insult me, but I took it as a compliment.)

It took me quite a few years to realise the limitations of the mind, although it is wonderful and necessary for the practical necessities of life. The American teacher Adyashanti refers to that part of the mind as “toolbox mind”. Without it you could not read this article, speak, go to work, etc. Adya also commented that the most intelligent action of the mind is to know its own limitations. It is not designed to understand or find truth. That is because truth or love is beyond the mind, beyond space and time and therefore beyond our understanding. But the mind can be used to recognise the obstacles to truth, so they may be forgiven and released.

The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance.    T-in.1.   

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false. T-16.IV.6.

 The mind does not like to give up its dominant position; it believes it is all powerful. It says, “Give me enough time and I will find the truth for you”. It likes to keep busy. Above all else, it seeks to understand. For the mind to find it cannot understand truth is very humbling and is resisted. The Course quote at the beginning of the article reminds us that total peace comes with total understanding. If we haven’t got peace then we understand nothing of importance. This concept will be resisted strongly by the mind. However, as we start to see the limitations of the mind we begin to relax and become more comfortable with not knowing. We realise the books have their place and can be very helpful at the start of our journey. We also need to see when they need to be given up - otherwise they become a hindrance.

The Course is written on many different levels. Here’s a quote that might be referred to as an end-of-the line teaching.

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself.  Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed.  Hold onto nothing.  Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything.  Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God. Lesson 189

Notice that in the last line of the quote Jesus even asks you to let A Course in Miracles go. If you have just started reading and understanding the Course then obviously this guidance is not relevant to your stage of learning. First, you need to master concepts before you can let them go. However, the time will come for all of us when books must be set aside and we only follow the guidance from within.

Having relied so heavily on our minds for everything during our lives, expect the mind to launch quite a battle against simply being relegated to practical duties. “You still need me,” it will cry. “Without me everything will be chaos!” “I know how to take you to God, truth and love. Instead of turning to your mind when you feel troubled, the Course gives the following advice:

When your peace is threatened or disturbed in any way,
say to yourself,

I do not know what anything, including this, means.
And so I do not know how to respond to it.
And I will not use my own past learning as the light
to guide me now.

By this refusal to attempt to teach yourself what you do not know, the Guide Whom God has given you will speak to you.
He will take His rightful place in your awareness the instant
you abandon it, and offer it to Him. T-14.XI.6.

 To begin to move from trying to understand and sorting everything out yourself to allowing an inner guidance to lead you, is a huge step in learning. As we start to attempt this the ego often masquerades up as the Holy Spirit and gives us the answers we prefer to hear to our problems. It is difficult initially to know if we receive true guidance and only time will tell - the result will be an increase in peace. Beware of any guidance accompanied by excitement and enthusiasm. This is always an indication that the guidance is coming from the ego. True guidance comes from a quiet place within us, a quiet knowing what to do.

Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God.  For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self.  And you are still as God created you.  Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. Lesson 197

Who we really are has never changed, nor is capable of change as it was created outside of time. It simply waits to be recognised by us. What prevents us becoming aware of it?

The memory of God comes to the quiet mind.  It cannot come where there is conflict, for a mind at war against itself remembers not eternal gentleness. T-23.I.1.

A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part.
Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That

This is why the Course stresses forgiveness. With forgiveness comes a quiet mind. As we learn to look without judgement upon ourselves and the world (forgiveness), our mind starts to become quiet creating an opportunity for the truth to reveal itself to us. Using the analogy of the sun as truth, we have placed clouds of judgement in front of it.  Our task is to become aware of these clouds without judging them and allow them to be removed by spirit. This is the process of forgiveness that the Course teaches. As the clouds become less the sun of truth begins to shine through to our minds. Love and truth start to dawn upon us.

For the mind to become quiet, it needs to release the importance of not just 'negative thoughts' but also so-called 'positive thoughts'.

These thoughts do not mean anything...None of them ("good" and "bad' thoughts) represents your real thoughts, which are covered up by them. The "good" ones are but shadows of what lies beyond, and shadows make sight difficult. The "bad" ones are blocks to sight, and make seeing impossible. You do not want either. Lesson 4

My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God (peace, love, co-creation).  
I am not aware of them because I have made my thoughts to take their place.
Lesson 51

When the mind is relegated to its (suitable) 'toolbox function' and kept away from its search for truth, our lives become full of grace. There will arise quiet knowing of what to do, what to say and where to go. We will start to develop spiritual vision where we look at life through the eyes spirit and not through the ego.

Above all else I want to see.
Recognizing that what I see reflects what I think I am, I realize that vision is my greatest need. The world I see attests to the fearful nature of the self-image I have made. If I would remember who I am, it is essential that I let this image of myself go. As it is replaced by truth, vision will surely be given me. And with this vision, I will look upon the world and on myself with charity and love. Lesson 56

What does it look like to have spiritual vision, to look through the eyes of spirit at the world? We will no longer take sides, which is the hallmark of ego perception. Labels such as "right" and "wrong", "good" and "bad" fall away. It’s not that we do not see all the pain in the world; now we will simply not judge it. Without judgement an energy is released in us which will be appropriate and helpful in a situation. We will not know ahead of time how we will act in some crisis, that was the way of ego thinking. The wisdom from beyond the mind will arise and guide. Now our judgement will be that of the Holy Spirit.

There is but one interpretation of motivation that makes any sense. And because it is the Holy Spirit's judgment it requires no effort at all on your part. Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes. Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a brother's plea for help? No response can be appropriate except the willingness to give it to him, for this and only this is what he is asking for. T-12.I.3.   

Simply put, the Holy Spirit sees people either asking for love or giving love.  When spiritual vision dawns in our awareness this is how we will see the world as well. If someone is pointing the gun at you and asking for your money, spiritual vision will see this as someone asking for love. You will be guided to the appropriate response, although you cannot tell what this will be beforehand. The following story, from my own teacher Dr. Kenneth Wapnick, is a good illustration of this.

Several years ago, I was awakened in the middle of the night by the sudden realization there was someone standing in my room.  After the momentary shock, I remembered “there is nothing to fear” (Lesson 48), and calmly asked my uninvited guest:  “What can I do for you?”  The situation was not obscure, however.  It was clear that the man was on drugs and desperately needed money for his next fix;  burglars rarely enter occupied apartments.  He threateningly held his hand in his jacket as if he had a gun, to punctuate his demand.  My defenselessness seemed to change the atmosphere in the room, however, and the man soon began apologizing for having broken in and disturbing my sleep.  I gave him whatever money I had in my wallet, and the man paused as he took it and then returned a couple of dollars, saying:  “This is all your money, I can’t leave you with nothing.”  And he went on apologizing.  I assured him it was all right, and urged him to do what he had to do.  As I ushered the man to the hall, waiting with him for the elevator, I said:  “God bless you.”  His final words as he disappeared into the elevator were:  “Please pray for me.”  I assured him I would, although I knew that this holy encounter had been the prayer.  No injustice had been done, for there had been no real loss.  The amount of money was a small “price” indeed for the blessing of forgiveness that had been given and received as one.
 from The Meaning of Forgiveness  by Kenneth Wapnick. p.101

In the above story Ken experienced the miracle, the shift of perception from the ego's fear-based view of the world to spiritual vision. With vision there is no fear. The quiet mind, the forgiven mind, receives the guidance from a wisdom beyond the egoic mind and simply carries it out as directed to achieve a win-win result for all concerned.

The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength. The awareness that there is nothing to fear shows that somewhere in your mind, though not necessarily in a place you recognize as yet, you have remembered God, and let His strength take the place of your weakness. The instant you are willing to do this there is indeed nothing to fear. Lesson 48