Trish - 2013-07-22 10:44 AM

 

 

A COURSE IN MIRACLES
STUDY GROUP

WITH RAJ

 

July 21st 2013

 

 

Good evening.  And welcome to everyone who’s joining us on the Internet.

You will notice that we are continuing on from where we left off in the Course last week, rather than returning to the Obstacles to Peace and continuing from there.  There is still some unfinished business regarding the practice of self-righteousness.  And again, more ease needs to be felt around the abandonment of self-righteousness.

I’m going to back up one paragraph from the stated beginning, where it says:

The holy instant is the miracle’s abiding-place.  From there, each one . . . ¹

. . . each miracle . . .

. . . is born into this world as witness to a state of mind which has transcended conflict, . .

. . . meaning yours . . .

. . . and has reached to peace.  It carries comfort from the place of peace into the battle-ground, and demonstrates that war has no effects.

That’s the result of the practice of the holy instant – of your abandonment of attack for even just one clear moment.

For all the hurt that war has sought to bring, the broken bodies and the shattered limbs, the screaming dying and the silent dead, are . . .

. . . what? . .

. . . gently lifted up and comforted.

This is quite a transformation we’re talking about.  This is quite a correction we’re talking about.

There IS no sadness where a miracle has come to heal.  And nothing more than just ONE instant of your love without attack is necessary, that all this occur.  In that one instant are you healed, and in that single instant is all healing done.

Now mind you, you can understand that in that one instant are you healed.  But I don’t want you to misunderstand what it means when it says:

. . . and in that single instant is all healing done.

As though you have been healed and then all healing in the world and universally is brought about – is caused to happen.  But that isn’t what it means. 

In that one instant where you have expressed love and not attack, you have arrived at a point of balance within you, a point of perfect peace within you, even if just for a moment.  And in that peace, that which is nothing more than your right Mind, called the Holy Spirit, can register with you and your perspective is healed – your vision is cleared, causing everything you see to be seen truly.  And when seen truly, it is obviously uninjured, undamaged – perfect in all respects – not because all the bad things got changed, but because the perspective that you had been using, which was one of fear and guilt and self-righteousness, because that was abandoned by you, it causes you to see everything as the Father is Being It, which is Perfect.

In that single instant when your perspective is healed, all correction of your misperceptions of the Kingdom of Heaven have been done.  You can see the simplicity of it. 

The truth is simple.  If self-righteousness is the number one cause of death, then the abandonment of self-righteousness is the number one cause of the revelation of your eternal life, unchallengeable, unchangeable, actual . . . absolute.  That’s the simplicity.

Now, knowing this, what on earth could cause you to continue to employ self-righteousness?  You know you want only the good.  You know that you want to Wake up.  You know that you want to experience your Salvation and deep within you, you know that it’s available to you and it’s your Birthright.

So, in the face of that kind of wonderful clarity, what could justify your continuing to practice self-righteousness?

It is understandable.  When you got your divorce from the Father by joining with a brother or sister in the manufacturing of false definitions – definitions different from what the Father created Creation to be – you found yourselves feeling disconnected from your Source and fear immediately was experienced and guilt along with it.

As a result, everything that followed and everything that follows to this moment is imbued with the characteristics of fear and guilt.  Even your relationship from the holy Son or Daughter of God that you moved into a special relationship with, by means of coming up with definitions of Creation different from the Father’s Meanings.   As a result, as we’ve discussed, the special relationship became competitive while at the same time feigning harmony and love and sweetness and light.

Now, let’s suppose that during the past few weeks, you have been diligently attending to the task, we’ll say, of not employing self-righteousness and being alert for when it creeps in.  And let’s say that at times it crept in and you didn’t notice it, and your partner or a loved one or someone who has joined you in this endeavor to abandon self-righteousness, says to you, “Whoa, you are being self-righteous!”  And you cannot see it but it does upset you.  It’s seen as criticism – unfair criticism.  But why?

Well, the call of the loved one or the partner or the one who’s joined you, they’re bringing it to your attention says to you that you need to stop playing manipulative games because after all, it’s the leading cause of death – it’s totally impractical, it’s dangerous!  It’s something you don’t want to engage in or experience.

But if you hear that it’s a call for abandoning self-righteousness, you realize that you have been using it as a defense.  You are always using self-righteousness as a defense.  But in many instances, your practice of self-defense is like one of many branches on a tree.  And yes, you can cut this branch of self-defense off, and that branch, but hey, we’re talking about chopping down the tree, aren’t we.  We’re talking about abandoning any use of self-defense. 

Well, if you’ve been engaging self-righteousness to protect yourself by implicating your brother or sister or brothers and sisters with whom you are engaged in special relationships, well, you can see that its value to you apparently, but not truly, is to put you in a position of  not being totally responsible for whatever might happen.  And your brother or sister becomes the scape-goat, the one that you can blame, the one that you can shift the guilt to.  You see?

I mean after all, if you’re not going to shift blame and guilt to your brother or sister with whom you’re in a special relationship, then it’s rather like standing there naked, all alone without defense.  And of course you think that you will need defense.  Why?  Because as I said, fear and guilt cover every aspect of your experience of Reality, of the Kingdom of Heaven, of Creation and therefore, you obviously are guilty and the penalty will come.  That is the fear. 

Another part of it is, that if you’re not going to claim the right to use your brother or sister as a scape-goat – for passing the responsibility on to – then it’s going to mean that your practicing the two-step, engaging in the holy instant, is going to require that you be always absolutely, flawlessly “right!” and Heaven help you if you aren’t.  You see? 

If you can’t share the blame, if you can’t share the guilt, you’re going to have to bear it all by yourself.  Again, but the only reason you feel that is because every aspect of your experience when you are unjoined, when you are not engaged in a holy relationship, is an experience of vulnerability.  And therefore, if you’re going to practice the holy instant, and if you’re not going to engage in attack, and if you’re going to ask to experience the Father’s Love so that you can express the Father’s Love, then obviously you are going to be vulnerable like you’ve never been before.  That is the fear.  Because of yourself, you have no confidence.  Of yourself, you have no ability to be absolutely incredibly “right” all the time.

This is very important to understand.

You use self-righteousness – everyone uses self-righteousness – as a defense against having to bear the brunt of all the guilt there is all by yourself.  And in the spotlight of that kind of responsibility and that kind of penalty, it really becomes impossible to say, “Father, what is the truth here?  I truly want to know the truth.”  It’s that simple.

Now, continuing in the Book:

What stands apart from you, when you accept the blessing that the holy instant brings?

Of course, the answer is “nothing.”  But that’s not what you believe at the outset of this new practice of abandoning self-righteousness.  You still don’t see unity or its potential, because this “poor little orphan” who is attempting to access an experience of divinity that he’s not believed for a long time, he cannot find the courage to do it completely. 

But again:

What stands apart from you, when you accept the blessing that the holy instant brings?

The question uncovers the fact that there is nothing that stands apart and therefore, there is no vulnerability left for you to experience.

It’s important to know this because it will help give you the courage to do something that seems wildly unintelligent and unreasonable. 

Be not afraid of blessing, . .

. . . of healing, of dawning clarity, of Revelation.

Be not afraid of blessing, for the One Who blesses you loves all the world, . .

. . . and who is the One Who blesses you?  The Holy Spirit – that  which is nothing more than your right Mind – and the blessing of that which is nothing more than your right Mind brings your whole Mind into active Presence as your conscious experience of inviolable integrity.  That’s the blessing!

Be not afraid of blessing, for the One Who blesses you loves all the world, and leaves nothing within the world that could be feared.

What does that mean?  It means that when the truth dawns on you and you look at the world with the truth that has dawned on you, you will see nothing there that could be feared.  Not because you’ve done anything to it, but because you’ve abandoned what caused the distortion in the first place . . . that said that the Kingdom of Heaven was not the Kingdom of Heaven and that it is flawed, conflicted, polarized and that It will die.

Now, it says:

But if you shrink from blessing, will the world indeed seem fearful, . .

. . . if you shrink from actually abandoning the important right you think you have to express self-righteous indignation – judgment – if you shrink from abandoning that right, then there will be no dawning clarity in your mind and the wholizing of your whole Mind will not occur yet to your perception.  And thus the conflicted, polarized nature of the world will be unchanged.

[But] if you shrink from blessing, will the world indeed seem fearful, for you have withheld its peace and comfort, leaving it to die.

You’ve refused to see it.  And you are insisting on seeing a material world and universe, leaving Creation Itself, flawless, infinite eternal Creation to die.  You’ve left it out of sight, out of mind.

Would not a world so bitterly bereft be looked on as a condemnation by the one who could have saved it, but stepped back because he was afraid of being healed?

You see?  The experience doesn’t seem to be one of being afraid of being healed, it is rather the fear that in not being able to practice self-defense you will be penalized!  You see?  So you step back from what is actually healing and exercise your right to be “pissed-off” to judge or to hold others or things in contempt.

The eyes of all the dying bring reproach, and suffering whispers, "What is there to fear?"

You see?  When you look at the Kingdom of Heaven, when you look at your Brothers who are Sons and Daughters of God, but you are seeing your definition of them, you will see nothing from them but reproach.

. . . and suffering whispers, “What is there to fear?”
Consider well its question.

You see?  In other words, you’re so used to it.  You’re so used to the expression of self-righteousness and critical judgment that you think there’s nothing to fear from it, not realizing that it is the number one cause of death.  It is what makes life seem terminal, even though life is eternal.

Consider well its question. It is asked of you on your behalf. A dying world asks only that you rest an instant . . .

. . . hesitate an instant, shut up!

. . . that you rest an instant  from attack upon yourself, that it be healed.

The world asks you to stop the attack on yourself so that it can be healed.  Meaning, so that you can see it truly and stop defining it through a mean-spirited, self-righteous arrogant frame of mind.

Come to the holy instant and be healed, . .

. . . remember, this section started out last week with the statement, “The only way to heal is to be healed.”  Meaning, you.  So . . .

Come to the holy instant . . .

. . . practice it – shut up and say, “Father, what is the truth here?”  And then listen!  Because the answer will be given or ask, “Holy Spirit, what is the truth here, reveal to me what it is my Birthright to be experiencing?”

Come to the holy instant and be healed, for nothing that is there received is left behind, on your returning to the world.

Meaning, as you look at the world you had been looking at before, but are now seeing the Kingdom of Heaven there instead.

. . . nothing that is there received is left behind, on your returning to the world.  And being blessed, you will bring blessing.

Now you see, that is what happens.  Being found guilty and being judged and paying the penalty for abandoning this wonderful expression of self-protection called “self-righteousness” will bring blessing.  That is the actual result.

And so again, you must dare to take these steps, even when your conditioning says it is unintelligent and dangerous, else you will not find that – even though you can understand the logic of it – that when you are clear of mind you will be clear of Mind.  You will not suffer from confusion or from misperception.

Life is given you to give the dying world.

Oh, I know . . . that sounds like some sort of grandiose task that must have been given to you because there’s something quite special about you.  But all it means is, that everything that you’re experiencing is an experience given to you so that you might recognize it for what it truly is and give it life – give it life by not disagreeing with what you’re seeing and providing a different definition of it.

Life is given you to give the dying world. And suffering eyes no longer will accuse, . .

. . . suffering eyes?  Oh yeah, the suffering eyes of others, the suffering eyes of others who you saw through your poor definitions of them and your frightened need for self-protection.

And suffering eyes no longer will accuse, but shine in thanks to you who blessing gave.

When the scales fall from your eyes and you see truly, then I tell you, that even if you are looking at someone who still believes they are an orphan and who still seems to be afraid, you will see the holy Son of God or the holy Daughter of God there.  And you will see eyes that shine in thanks for your willingness to see truly.

The holy instant’s radiance will light your eyes, and give them sight to see . . .

. . . what? . .

. . . beyond all suffering, and see Christ’s face instead. Healing REPLACES suffering.

Clarity replaces confusion.  Clarity is the absence of confusion.  Healing is the absence of suffering.

Who looks on one cannot perceive the other, . .

Who looks on healing cannot perceive suffering.  Who looks on suffering cannot perceive healing . . . 

. . . for they cannot both be there. And what you see the world will witness, and will witness TO.

In that sense, you have a false experience of being all-powerful, because you can choose to believe a lie and you will see the lie.  And no matter the fact that God is all there Is, you will not see that fact.  And you will not experience Creation here and now.

Thus is your healing everything the world requires, that it may be healed.

That’s the simplicity of it.  [whew] The special relationship is a sticky, complicated, arrangement of agreements that says, the only way anything can be better or worse is if we cooperate or fight with each other.  But it’s not true.  The only thing that can make things better is for you to abandon the mutual agreements as to what will make things better, so that you, in the peace of your mind, can experience the singularity, the purity of all conscious experience, of all of Creation, which is the manifestation of the Mind of God.

Don’t complicate things by making it seem as though others or other things have some means of governing you and causing you to suffer and miss the Kingdom of Heaven that you’re right in the middle of.

Thus is your healing everything . . .

. . . and the only thing . . .

. . . the world requires, that it may be healed. It needs ONE lesson which has perfectly been learned.

One lesson – your lesson – the lesson of simply not indulging in self-righteousness again.  That’s the lesson that changes absolutely everything and redeems Creation to your sight. 

It needs ONE lesson which has perfectly been learned.  And then, when you forget it, . .

. . . if you do . . .

. . . will the world remind you gently of what you have taught.

You see?  You won’t be able to forget completely.  And your clear vision will find means of being reflected back to you and reminding you lovingly without the suggestion of guilt or fear or punishment.

No reinforcement will its thanks withhold from you who let yourself be healed that it . . .

. . . the world . . .

. . . might live. It will call forth its witnesses to show the face of Christ to you who brought the sight to them, by which they witnessed it.

You know, when you are a blessing, others are blessed.  And when others are blessed, they bless you back.  And out of the love that arises in them and is expressed toward you, you will find when you slip . . . when you slip back, that they will lovingly remind you of the truth through their love, not through self-righteousness of any kind.  That is the new way things work when you dare to disregard the fear that you will stand naked and alone and subject to guilt and penalty if you indeed abandon the self-defense of self-righteousness.

The world of accusation is replaced by one in which all eyes look lovingly upon the Friend who brought them their release. And happily your brother will perceive the many friends he thought were enemies.

You get that?  As you let yourself be infilled with the spontaneous illumination of the Love you are Loved by from the Father and the Love that you Are that cannot help but flow spontaneously from you, you see with new eyes and you see Friends where you had seen enemies.  And the friends you see are illumined themselves and they see Friends where they had previously seen enemies.

Now, you’re all familiar with the statement, the saying that “The devil’s in the details?”  The devil is in the details.  Well, here’s another way of putting it:  The devil’s in the definitions.  The ego is in the definitions.  The devil is in the mutually agreed upon definitions that the Sons and Daughters of God have made up to replace the True perception of everything.  You see that? 

Now this is important because if at any point during the day you close your eyes for a moment, clear your mind, and imagine that you are opening your eyes up in a place you’ve never been before, what will you see?

Before we answer that:  If, when you close your eyes, you acknowledge that the only thing ever confronting you is the Kingdom of Heaven and you want to see the Kingdom of Heaven and you open your eyes, what will you see?  You are not likely to see the Kingdom of Heaven.  Why not?  Because there will be something in the way.  The something that will be in the way are all the meanings and definitions that you have applied to everything you are seeing.

Let’s say that you are a spiritual person, one who attempts to be loving, give the benefit of the doubt and feels somewhat holy as a result.  And being holy has its own definitions.  And someone who is holy does not breathe in or find himself in an immoral atmosphere.

But let’s say that at any given moment when you do this little practice and you open up your eyes and you are outside a bar, or perhaps you’ve had to go into the bar to deliver a message . . . whatever . . . you open up your eyes and you see an immoral atmosphere.  You also feel very uncomfortable because it, being an immoral atmosphere, your holiness doesn’t fit.  And the definition of your holiness says to you that there’s no way for you to feel good, there’s no way for you to feel your peace until you get out of there as quickly as possible.

Now, that is exactly what gets in the way of your Waking up, because what happened was the practice of self-righteousness, the practice of judgment.

You believe that what you believe everything is, is what everything is.

And as long as you are suffering from that belief you will not be able to feel peace and you will not be defenseless enough to have the Father or the Holy Spirit reveal to you what this place that looks like a bar Really is, because something is there, seen clearly or seen though a glass darkly – seen through self-righteousness.  You have a right to be able to open your eyes and see what the Presence of God Is right there where you have learned there is a bar and where there is immorality and where you cannot possibly feel your peace.  You see?

The meanings that everything have for you right now, are definitions that you have been taught or that you have made up for yourself.  And these are the elements of self-righteousness that cause self-righteousness to be the number one killer — the number one cause of death.

So if you want to Wake up, if you . . . oh, if you want to be free of sin, sickness and death, you are going to have to be willing to look with innocent eyes and with enough courage no matter what you’re seeing, to say, “If anything at all is going on here, right now, it has to be Creation, it has to be the Kingdom of Heaven, because in actuality there is nothing else.  That’s all there Is and I’m seeing it clearly or I’m not.

It’s very important that you realize that when you look at your world you are seeing the meanings you are applying to the world, and you’re not applying the meaning that what you’re seeing is the Kingdom of Heaven seen unclearly, but which you would like to see clearly.  You don’t even associate the Kingdom of Heaven with what you’re seeing today.  That’s because you’re giving preference to the mutually agreed upon definitions that are the devil’s details that cause the only thing there Truly is to be misperceived by you, causing you to suffer needlessly.

Continuing in the book:

Problems are not specific, . .

. . . listen to that.

Problems are not specific, . .

. . . problems are not in the details.

Problems are not specific, but they take specific forms, . .

. . . by virtue of the definitions you apply . . .

. . . and these specific shapes make up the world.

And I will say, make up the world you see.

And no-one understands the nature of his problem.

[Chuckling]  No one understands that the nature of his problem is that he is looking at everything through the lens of his own misperceptions.  And it is the lens of his own misperceptions that need to be abandoned to solve all misperceptions — all problems.

And no-one understands the nature of his problem. If he did, it would be there no more for him to see. Its very nature is that it is NOT.

It’s not there for him to see.  It’s not there for you to see.

And thus, while he perceives it, he can NOT perceive it as it is.

As long as he perceives the Kingdom of Heaven as a material world and universe he cannot see it as the Kingdom of Heaven.

But healing is apparent in specific instances, and generalizes to include them all.

What does that mean?  It means that problems are experienced in a general way, not a specific way.  And then they take specific forms as you provide definition to it. 

But to the contrary, healing appears in specific instances and then generalizes to include them all.  And so you experience the disappearance of a cavity in your tooth.  You experience appendicitis vanishing.  You experience specific things that in a way are finite, but the experience provides you with a basis for anticipating and being able to believe in other specific instances of healing.

. . . healing is apparent in specific instances, and generalizes to include them all. This is because they really are the same, despite their different forms. All learning aims at transfer, which becomes complete within two situations which are seen as one, for ONLY common elements are there.

Okay, let’s break this apart here:  

All learning aims at transfer, which becomes complete within two situations which are seen as one, . 

Here are the two situations:  A material world and universe, that’s one situation.  The Kingdom of Heaven is another situation.  But when you see that they are one, they are one thing experienced clearly or through a glass darkly, now the two meet and the dawning in your consciousness can flood your awareness and the transfer of what is Real in both situations to each other becomes a singular and only experience of the Kingdom of Heaven of what is Really there.  That’s the way it works.  And you don’t have to know how to make it work.  You simply have to be willing to look at what appear to be two different things and recognize that they are one thing seen from two different perspectives – one of which is simply false.

Yet . . .

. . . as I just said, this isn’t something you have to understand how to do.

Yet this can only be attained by One Who does not see the differences you see.

And that one is the Holy Spirit – that which is nothing but your right Mind, your whole Mindedness.

The total transfer of your learning is not made by you. But that it has been made in spite of all the differences you see, convinces you that they could not be real.

And the moment you are convinced that the differences are not real, ah-h . . . you release the false definitions, you release the self-righteousness, you release the need for self-defense.  And in the peace of your mind all of this becomes clear.

Your healing will extend, . .

. . . spontaneously . . .

. . . and will be brought to problems that you thought were not your own. And it will also be apparent that your many different problems will be solved, as any one of them has been escaped.

Dare . . . oh-h, dare to abandon the practice of self-defense.  Dare to believe that in the abandoning it, you will not be found guilty and penalized.  And genuinely desire to have the Holy Spirit reveal the Truth to you, because the Holy Spirit will do it.  And like a domino effect, the healing will move forth and expand.

This is the point.  The whole point of this is to bring each of you to a point of inner equilibrium, a balance that feels natural and feels good, one which is inescapably holy but which makes you not better than anything else because it uncovers the holiness of absolutely everything.  And you feel at Home, not different.

I encourage all of you during this coming week to continue to explore [chuckling] the abandonment of the practice of self-righteousness.  And bring a little bit more faith to the fact that if you abandon confusion, you will become clear.  And the elements of confusion will not color your new clarity.  Your new clarity will emancipate you from them.

I love you all.  And I look forward to being with you next time

.
 A Course In Miracles (reference pages)

¹Chapter 27 – Section:  THE HEALING EXAMPLE
Sparkly Book – p.633, 1^ST Full Par.   /   JCIM – p.266, 1^st Full Par.   /   CIMS – p.536, Par. 44
Chapter 19 – Section:  THE ATTRACTION OF PAIN
First Edition  –  p. 535, 3^rd Line from Bottom  /    Second Edition – p.577, Par. 4, Sen. 4

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A Course in Miracles Study Group with Raj, July 21^st 2013
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