This week’s Gentle Healing Year 1 homework includes watching the movie, “Little Buddha”. That movie does not seem to be available for purchase or rental from any of the regular online movie databases. I have uploaded the movie to DropBox. You may use the following link to access the movie:

Little Buddha

Lesson 154, I am among the ministers of God

Today’s workbook lesson is a calling. All are called. The question is, who will answer?

In order to answer the call, there are certain requirements.

1. We must let go of judging of ourselves. This includes letting go of judging if we are ready for service, if we are worthy of service, and what our role of service should be. This means that an emptying out needs to occur. We need to let go of who we think we are, what we think we want, and what we think our strengths and weaknesses are. We need to be open and willing, and nothing more. Anything that we add to that, like ideas about what our service should be, will likely come from ego.

I am reminded of Eckhart Tolle’s story. He experienced an awakening, and then he spent the better part of the next two years sitting on a park bench in London in a state of bliss. And then guidance began to come. He was guided to move to the west coast of the USA, although he did not know why. So he went. Later it unfolded that he wrote a book, The Power of Now, and his role as a teacher began.

If you look at Eckhart’s story, you can see that he did not pick his role. He also was not searching for his role. He was happy just to be. When the first step in his function came, which was to move, he moved. At that point there was no more to it. The feeling came to move, and so he moved.

Are we willing to have no ideas of our own? Are we willing to simply be here now, following whatever prompts there are in the moment, without planning what our part will be?

2. We must be willing to say ‘yes,’ even though we have no idea how we will succeed. Today’s Course lesson says, “And that one Voice appoints your function, and relays it to you, giving you the strength to understand it, do what it entails, and to succeed in everything you do that is related to it.”When you receive your guidance, it is likely you won’t know how you will accomplish it. You may not have the knowledge, skill, resources or money needed. That’s not your concern. A part of how you will learn that there is something bigger than your little self is to say ‘yes’, and then watch how everything is provided. It’s such a marvelous experience! But it is an experience that can only be had if you say ‘yes.’

3. You must realize that your service is for you. It doesn’t matter if you are made a teacher, a writer, a musician, a bookkeeper, a housekeeper, an event organizer, etc. You may be able to see how your function serves others, but what is most important is that you notice how your function serves to awaken you. Where are the opportunities to let go of your way of thinking? Where are the opportunities to increase trust? Where are the opportunities to let go of self-will and increase surrender? Whatever form of service you are given, your awakening is its first purpose. Always remember its first purpose, and let your function do its job on you.

4. You must also realize that your service is not just for you. Its first purpose is receiving for your own awakening, but its second purpose is giving. All energy is a flow, and in order for a flow to be effective, it must continue to flow. So you will receive from your service, and then you will give. And you will continue to receive, and you will continue to give. This is the flow.It is important to realize that you do not decide how you will give. A trick of the ego can come at this stage. Even if you were careful enough to let go of judging yourself (#1 above), to say ‘yes’ (#2) and to see your function as for you (#3), the ego may try to trick you at this point by convincing you that you are now mature enough to know what is best; now you can decide what to give and how to give it. This is a very common ego trick and one that is to be watched for. It is the ego trying to reestablish itself in your mind. Keep in mind that the way to successfully give is to continually repeat steps 1-3 above.

Today I ask that you contemplate what I have shared above. Everyone has a function to be fulfilled. As today’s lesson says, “He needs our voice that He may speak through us. He needs our hands to hold His messages, and carry them to those whom He appoints. He needs our feet to bring us where He wills, that those who wait in misery may be at last delivered. And He needs our will united with His Own, that we may be the true receivers of the gifts He gives.”

My baby sister Jacquelyn is a perfect example of one who got the call and had the courage to answer the call.

Jacquelyn has always had the “calling” I think. After college I began working for my parent’s newly purchased pallet business and I remember Jacquelyn would call the office and want to share her joy she felt after reading Emmet Fox’s “The Sermon On The Mount”. Years later after Jacquelyn had graduated from Harvard Law School and became a District Judge for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. We (Mom, Dad and I, I believe) asked Jacquelyn if she wanted to go with us to hear David Hoffmeister speak. Jacquelyn said she didn’t want to go, but she clearly heard she was supposed to go. She went and within the next couple of years of that meeting Jacquelyn gave up her judgeship, her lifetime retirement and her beautiful home to move to Utah where David Hoffmeister’s group had moved. A year or two later Jacquelyn was inspired to move to Colorado and began working with Regina and the Awakening Together organization.

If you look at Jacquelyn’s story, you can see she did not pick her life although she may have tried to for awhile. But the “good” life didn’t mean much when Jacquelyn started hearing the prompts to leave that life and go where she was directed.

You may already know your function, and you have delayed saying ‘yes.’ You may not yet know your function, but it may come to you soon. Or it may not be time for you to know your function yet. Regardless of your specific situation, a deep contemplation of today’s workbook lesson will prepare you to fulfill your role, whatever it may be.

Lesson 152. The power of decision is my own.

This lesson says, “Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose. Here is your world, complete in all details.” Wait a minute. I would not choose a lot of what goes on in the world. What goes on in this world breaks my heart. How could these terrible things that occur represent my wish?

NTI Acts 23 answers my question and gives an example in the explanation, “If you are not separate from anything at all, then everything that is must be a part of you. When you look at the world, you see cruelty. This cruelty you see as separate from you. Yet if you are honest, you know that the cruelty lives in a wish. It is important to note that the cruelty is a wish, for a wish is not what you are. A wish is what you are not, but what you may pretend to be.” Okay, so I can see that these wishes are very powerful, but I’m not sure I believe that I have had a hand in creating the suffering of the world. It would appear that these wishes are a part of the illusion and they are not therefore the truth. If my decision is so powerful and I must own it, what can I do about it?

Again, NTI Acts 23 has the answer, “In order to see beyond the wish that you made, you must take away the wish. I am showing you the wish that you have made, so you may choose to let go of the wish. The wish you have made, you have denied, and you do not want to claim it. You see your wish as a terrible sin, and you fear more than anything to face it. But it is important for you to know that if you do not face it and let it go, the wish continues to be wished. It is a wish that you have made, and it has all the power you have given it. As such, the wish continues until you face the wish and choose not to wish it anymore.”

Okay, maybe I have been a little mean before so I can see how cruelty lives in a wish. So what other wishes must I take responsibility for? Well, I guess I do go around saying I just hate it when the gas stations don’t make sure there is paper for the receipts at the pumps. It makes me so angry that I am quiet often rude to the cashier when they hand me the receipt. And today, when I had fast food for lunch, the kids running the restaurant were a joke. They gave me no utensils, the wrong drink and they prepared my food incorrectly. Again, I was angry and probably rude.

If I’m being guided to watch my wishes (decisions) and how these decisions affect the world and more directly my experiences, I can see that I certainly have had a hand in the way these circumstances played out. I perpetuated a rude, non-caring world where people are in a hurry and want things their way and when they don’t go that way they feel justified being rude.

It sure looks like my wishes or decisions have creations in this illusory world. I see I have been unconscious, okay repeatedly unconscious, and my experiences reflect this state of mind. It looks like I have added to the suffering in the world and I am grateful that my unconscious behavior has no effect on truth. It does not affect truth, but my decisions based on what I believed and desired shaped my experience and possibly created a negative experience for the gas station cashier and the kids running the fast food restaurant. 

I’m glad for this lesson and what it has shown me. I am glad to face the wishes/decisions I make and accept and understand that I am a co-creator in the world. I now know that “the power of decision is my own.”

Lesson 152. The power of decision is my own.

We contemplated Michael Langford’s theatre analogy along with Lesson 151. Today’s workbook lesson looks at a difference between the theatre analogy and our experience with the world. In the theatre analogy, people are born in a theatre and mesmerized by the film, but they have nothing to do with creating the film. As today’s workbook lesson points out, we are each “co-creator of the universe.”

Today’s lesson begins, “No one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one suffers pain except his choice elects this state for him. No one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes he wants. And no one dies without his own consent.” And it continues by saying, “And it is only here salvation is.”

Just like with Lesson 151, today’s lesson is clear that “what is false is false.” That which we co-create through the power of our decision is not true and it does not change truth. However, our decisions are the source of the illusion that we find ourselves so mesmerized with. We learned this when we studied and contemplated The Code.

Lesson 152 says, “Nothing occurs but represents your wish, … You may believe that this position is extreme, and too inclusive to be true.”

Over the next two days, we will look at this lesson in a very practical way. We will watch for decisions that we make that shape our individual experience. Many of these decisions seem unconscious until we watch for them, and then we see that they are made both consciously and repeatedly.

Here are few examples of the types of decisions you may see yourself make as you watch for the decisions that shape your experience.

I don’t want to do this.
I hate … (traffic, this heat, mean people, stupid people, myself, etc.)
I will never be able to …
I don’t have enough …
I’m tired of this.
He/she is … (annoying, wrong, stupid, lazy, etc.)
I’m so … (stupid, lazy, ugly, etc.)
I have too much to do.
They think … about me.
This situation is unacceptable.
I’ll be happy when I get …
I’ll be safe when I get …
I won’t ever … (understand this, be able to do this, get to go there, etc.)
No one ever pays attention to me.
This always happens to me.
This is too good; something bad is going to happen next.
This isn’t fair.

As you watch for the decisions you make, notice both the decisions and how those decisions affect your experience. Ask yourself, “If I made a different decision about this, how would my experience be different?” Look both at the circumstance and your emotional experience to see if you can find at least one way your experience would be different if you made a different decision.