As you know, Helen Keller was blind and could not hear from the time she was a baby, so she had no understanding of communication. A teacher was hired to teach her sign language, but since the concept of communication was missing for Helen, sign language meant nothing. The teacher tried again and again to teach her with no results.

One day Helen threw a fit at the dinner table and threw down a pitcher of water. The teacher grabbed Helen and the pitcher and took her to the well to refill it. Once at the well, the teacher repeatedly stuck Helen’s hand under the water and then signed the symbol for water against the palm of Helen’s hand so she could feel it. Over and over she did this and then, a light bulb went off in Helen’s mind. Suddenly she understood the concept of communication. With that, signing took on meaning. She excitedly ran around the yard asking the teacher to show her the sign for this and this and this. She became a very eager student.

Well, the day I came to understand the concept of ‘giving and receiving as one’, I understood forgiveness, and I became a very eager practitioner of forgiveness.

I learned ‘giving and receiving are one’ from scribing NTI Ephesians. It was further emphasized in ‘the Code.’ It is summarized by this:

What I think, I see.
What I see, I experience.
What I experience, I think.

The best way to have your Helen Keller moment at the well is to watch. How do you feel when you judge a person or situation? How do you feel when you reject a person or a situation? How do you feel when you genuinely accept what is? How do you feel when you love what is? Can you see that you directly experience your own decision to judge, reject, accept or love? Can you see that it is never different; you always experience your own decision?

Giving and receiving are one. Therefore, to have peace, be peace. To know love, be love. And to do that, let go of any thought that does not make you happy. Just let it go. That is forgiveness.

The fact above can be painful for some people to look at with absolute honesty. Some of you who are reading this today will avoid accepting that statement as true, even though it would be really helpful if you did accept it as true. That is okay. As today’s lesson says, you are not “led by force, but only love. … not judged, but only sanctified.” However, you will find happiness sooner if you can accept the statement above.

Let me give you an example. Yesterday I was listening to Byron Katie on Awakening Together Radio. She used to be severely depressed. She said during that time she heard the inner voice tell her to brush her teeth, but she didn’t want to brush her teeth. She said she went weeks, months without brushing her teeth.

As I listened to her tell the story above, I could hear how the simple wisdom, “Brush your teeth,” was a first step in moving out of her downward spiral. But what did Katie choose? For a long time she chose to continue the downward spiral. However, finally one day she realized what she was doing, and she chose to ‘brush her teeth.’ By then she was so deep into the downward spiral that she says she had to “crawl” over to the sink to brush her teeth, but she did. And that was the beginning of the way out of depression. Katie said that now she always listens to that voice no matter what it tells her to do. She is completely surrendered to it. She is also completely happy.

Many people think it is hard to hear the voice of wisdom. I don’t think that is true. I think we simply need to begin to listen to it instead of wanting to do things our own way. When today’s lesson asks us to be still, quiet, silent, so the voice can speak, it really means we need to put our mind’s will aside and be willing to follow that intuitive voice like Katie does. The more we do that, the clearer the voice becomes.

If you would like to watch the video I just wrote about, here’s the link. The part I just shared starts at about 19 minutes and 50 seconds into the video:

Where I live the internet is slower than in most towns and cities. That’s because our area is somewhat rural. When I upload an audio file, it can take several minutes. As the file is uploading, I can watch a progress bar, which shows me that 1% of the file is uploaded, 2% of the file, 3% of the file, etc. So I know the upload is making progress.

However, I don’t have a progress bar that shows my spiritual progress.

When uploading a file, if I ignored the progress bar and declared failure after 5 minutes because the file wasn’t uploaded yet, I would be wrong. It isn’t failure. It is simply in progress, but not yet complete. If I got frustrated that the file wasn’t uploaded and shutdown the computer, I would prevent additional progress.

What if we were to realize that our awakening is in progress? And then with trust in that fact, what if we continue to follow instructions so that spiritual progress can continue?

When Michael Langford was teaching me to meditate, he shared some quotes with me. These are the quotes:

“Don’t look for quick results; there may be none within your noticing.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

“Don’t waste energy on thinking or evaluating how well or how badly you are doing in your meditation.” ~ Annamalai Swami

“Don’t be discouraged by the length of the journey, and don’t slacken in your efforts to get home.” ~ Annamalai Swami

“The practice is the progress.” ~ The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss

Compare these quotes to what today’s Course lessons says:

“Peace be to you today. Secure your peace by practicing awareness you are one with your Creator, as He is with you. Sometime today, whenever it seems best, devote a half an hour to the thought that you are one with God. … Abide with Him this half an hour. He will do the rest. Your benefit will not be less if you believe that nothing happens. You may not be ready to accept the gain today. Yet sometime, somewhere, it will come to you, nor will you fail to recognize it when it dawns with certainty upon your mind. … You will remember then the thought to which you gave this half an hour, thankfully aware no time was ever better spent.”

Nisargadatta told the devotee who thought he had failed, “Try again. … Give attention to the reality within you and it will come to light.”