Guidance

“Abandon the compulsion of the thinking mind.  I am asking you to stop looking for meaning in things.”  COL bk.2, 20:II

We analyze everything!  And here, in a message attributed to Mary, we are asked just to stop this, the compulsion of the thinking mind.  A Course of Love, received from Jesus, asks us to listen to our heart, which is actually the center of our being. 

When we look for meaning in everything, analyzing, we are often in the egoic mind.  How much sense do you think the ego is really making?  None!  We analyze wrongly, but then we act on what we “receive” from our mind, and we think that we are so right!  We are misinformed.  We cannot know much that we think we have figured out.

I used to analyze just all the time.  It earned me good marks on the analytical part of the Graduate Record Examination, but it was a poor way to navigate in life.  We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit (A Course in Miracles) or the Christ-Mind (A Course of Love).  The Way of Mastery echoes a similar theme, that the mind is meant to be a very “stupid servant.”  And we so prize our good intelligence!

There is an easier way to live.  And these received writings all point in the same direction.  Give up trying to make our own decisions about where to go, what to do, what to say.  Refer those decisions to a Higher Power.

And watch life ease out, never to give us many of the same problems again.  Now we are truly being “intelligent,” referring questions to a higher authority.

Empowered Living

“The world is uncaused by anything, save the choices you have made as a free consciousness.  You have concocted the thought and then immersed yourself in that which reflects back to you what you have already decided to believe.  This means that The Way of Transformation is that way in which one becomes empowered, in every moment, to become fully responsible for clearly deciding what they will see and that they will not settle for anything less.”  (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 12, Page 147)

We determine what we will see and experience in this world by our own “free consciousness.”  What happens is based on what we believe is possible.  And if the belief is not there, the manifestation won’t be either.  When we fully engage our minds and hearts in what we wish to see, not taking “no” for an answer (unless we intuit that it is wrong for us), we are on the right track.   This quotation says it all:  We “clearly” decide what we will see and “will not settle for anything less.”

Knowing this is possible is a great blessing for us.  Of course, it is the law of attraction in operation.  The Way of Mastery, from which this quotation comes, is keen on manifestation, but it is manifestation that is aligned with our deepest nature.  If we get the nod from our interior that what we want is exactly right for us, then we have a great assurance that it WILL manifest.

On the other hand, if we can’t see, with our mind’s eye, the desired happening coming about, then it is time to reevaluate our goals.  Our options may include things that we haven’t thought about yet, and those options may be very, very good indeed.

Ask for direction in what we want.  Then we will best invoke the law of attraction.

In Times of Temptation

“Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful, and the holy. Do not lose sight of this. Invite me to enter anywhere temptation arises.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.46.7:1-3)

“The good, the beautiful, and the holy.” This phrase antedates The Way of Mastery, and these words reappear in this later channeling. The one who channeled (and continues to channel) Jesus, Jayem, emailed me that Jesus had prevented him from reading A Course in Miracles, a directive, as it were. So Jesus himself is responsible for this turn of phrase.

What does this beautiful phrase actually mean? It is what we are to be about in this world. And in changing this world, and, ultimately, in creating a new world. The words are actually synonymous, though we recognize that there are differences among the words. May we listen to Jesus today, and do what we can to lead a beautiful life while carrying out his instructions to create the “good, the beautiful, and the holy.”

If we sense that we are about to take the wrong turn, let us turn to our leader, Jesus, to refrain from allowing temptation to have its way with us. None of us are above temptation. Actually it is the last vestiges of the ego in ourselves. The ego is one way to look at the hated and feared “devil.” The ego does not mean us well. Historically and traditionally, we have seen the devil as the tempter.

Jesus at this point in A Course in Miracles is taking upon himself the role that will later be assumed by the Holy Spirit, and, later still, the Christ-Self. He is telling Helen and Bill, and, by extension, us, to turn to an epitome of good (in himself) to withstand the wily ways of temptation.

We know when we are being tempted. There will be a little excitement, and a sense of not being able to stop ourselves from moving forward. But we will have an uneasy feeling, and all will not be well.

Turn to our companion and guide, Jesus, at such times. Let the good, beautiful, and holy envelop us.

And all will be well.

Welcome a Miracle Today

“Christ-consciousness will be temporary or sustainable depending on your ability to refrain from judgment. What is flows from Love and knows not judgment. All that you envision, imagine, desire with love must be without judgment or it will be false envisioning, false imagining, false desire. This simply means false, or not consistent with the truth. It does not mean wrong or bad and is itself no cause for judgment. It is simply an alternative that will draw you out of Christ-consciousness and not allow it to be sustainable.” (ACOL, T4:7.1)

When we enter Christ-consciousness, we are fearless. Being fearless is a prerequisite. If this seems impossible, know that miracles are quite possible. Welcome a miracle today. And choose not to focus on the “impossibility” of Christ-consciousness coming swiftly. Many in our world are experiencing this sea change every day.

Once we do reach Christ-consciousness, Jesus says in the quotation for today that we need to avoid judgment, or that Christ-consciousness will not be sustainable. If we live in the present, we are probably less likely to judge, for judging is fast adhering to the past and the future. We are safe in the present; let’s remember that today.

Living in the present is a way to bypass much turmoil, for when we are experiencing something, even something bad, we aren’t tuned in to its “badness” in the present. We are just proceeding forward, one step at a time. It is when we look back or peer into the future that we get into trouble. Know that the God Who protects us now will still be there for us down the road. He never leaves us. He never forsakes us. And when we are surrendering to him anew each day, we know this.

“False” is the adjective for judging. But we don’t really do “bad” things in judging; we are simply struggling, and struggling is not going to get us to the sustenance of Christ-consciousness. Jesus says this in The Way of Mastery, a channeled work from the nineties. We often think that struggling, with its often attendant anxieties, will be the tribute that we pay for making progress. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Progress requires nothing negative from us at all. And progress is what we are about now.

So: Let us release judging now. We know when we are doing it, but we often don’t seem to know how to stop. Let it go. Let go and let God handle the issue. We were told in A Course in Miracles that only the Holy Spirit could rightly judge, for only He knew the past, present, and future—all circumstances—that caused a given thing to happen. Our own judgments are always and only false.

Prayer

May I live in the present today. That is my guidance this morning. Thank You for being here for me. Thank You that I know that You are omnipresent.

May this be a good day. May the circumstances of my life smooth to a walkway that is serene, strewn with fallen autumn leaves to cushion my walk. Thank You.

Amen.

TWO – YEAR TEACHING UNIT ON A COURSE OF LOVE

Note: Today begins two years of focusing on A Course of Love, with a teaching unit that will go, page by page, through ACOL. (There will be some interludes of material with other themes.)

The “Place” of A Course of Love

The dictation Mari [Perron] scribed specifically referred to A Course of Love as a “continuation of the coursework provided in A Course in Miracles.” (A.4) It also stated:

“Where the original Course in Miracles was a course in thought reversal and mind training, a course to point out the insanity of the identity crisis and dislodge the ego’s hold, this is a course to establish your identity and to end the reign of the ego.” (C:P.8)

Many of the individuals drawn to A Course of Love are seeking something further than A Course in Miracles, some further understanding that will take them to Awakening. It is almost as though Jesus had “unfinished business” with us after he saw that some of us were floundering following ACIM. So he went back to the drawing board, and the result is A Course of Love. Jesus in this work makes a great deal out of listening to our heart, which does not need proof as the mind does. Many of us were seeking for proof of Jesus’s words in ACIM, proof that we knew enough (with our minds) to reach Awakening.

But this is where we went wrong. The mind cannot think its way to enlightenment. The intellectual construct of A Course in Miracles may have led some of us to think this way. And Jesus gives us another way of seeing in ACOL. He says that the heart needs to coach the mind into a partnership, into a fusion of mind and heart that he calls “wholeheartedness.” This is the way out of the maze for us. This is our way home to God.

Many ideas build upon ACIM. We were encouraged to see our brother in ACIM as our way to salvation. We forgave him, and in the forgiving we moved into a new and better reality. In ACOL, we learn that we are meant to be sharing in this world. We are not meant to be isolated and alone, but in “unity and relationship” with all. Our relationships, the ones that become union, are our way home. And this idea is very, very similar to the “brother” concept of ACIM.

A Course of Love, though, can stand on its own, as we shall see as we first consider the original Course, the first part of the three-part Course. (The other two parts are the “Treatises” and the “Dialogues.”) The original Course acts as a summary of some of what we find in A Course in Miracles. The Treatises and the Dialogues are much more original in scope.

So let us begin a two-year consideration of A Course of Love. We will go through the book in order, though drawing parallels from the whole, as well as similarities and differences with A Course in Miracles and The Way of Mastery.