Our current goals:

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

The main point of today’s lesson is of the utmost importance to those who truly want to heal the mind (i.e., undo conditioning that is based on false premises).

The lesson teaches that all distress (all upset) is because of unforgiveness. The key word in that sentence is “all.”

Most people who study A Course in Miracles accept that some upsets are due to unforgiveness, but few accept that all upsets are due to unforgiveness. If you really want to heal the mind, this is a teaching you must accept, because where you decide this lesson does not apply is where your mind will not heal.

As today’s lesson stresses, “[Unforgiveness] is the content underneath the form. It is this sameness which makes learning sure, because the lesson is so simple that it cannot be rejected in the end. No one can hide forever from a truth so very obvious that it appears in countless forms, and yet is recognized as easily in all of them, if one but wants to see the simple lesson there. … How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, …? Does pain seem real in the perception? If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned. And there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind …”

This is where the lesson gets very exciting to me.

First it says, “Morning and night, devote what time you can to serve its proper aim, and do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need.”

I often used to journal twice a day, morning and night, just as this lesson recommends. The purpose of journaling was to look at my mind and practice forgiveness.

What is forgiveness?

It is letting go of every thought process that causes even the tiniest feeling of upset in you.

How do you let go?

Through one or another form of self-inquiry. Through right-reason. Through rest, accept and trust. These are all tools that are used to let go.

I love that the lesson says, “do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need.” That means, take all of the time you need to make sure forgiveness is complete. Forgiveness doesn’t always happen fast. That’s okay. Speed is not the issue. Genuine release is what is most important. (According to the Book of Mark, Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray three times before he felt complete.)

I also love this:

“Each hour, spend a little time today, and in the days to come, in practicing the lesson in forgiveness in the form established for the day. And try to give it application to the happenings the hour brought, so that the next one is free of the one before. … Let no hour cast its shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in its course go with it.”

This is how you become a master of forgiveness, a master at reprogramming the brain so it is based on truth instead of based on falsehood. You look at each upset. You don’t let any slide by.

Today’s lesson recommends a really good practice. Since most people let many upsets pass everyday without looking at them, it is a good idea to pause each hour, look at the upsets that occurred in that hour, and practice forgiveness on them. Eventually you will become very sensitive to even the smallest upset, and you won’t be able to wait until the end of an hour to practice forgiveness, so you will practice it immediately. However, in the beginning your body is not well tuned to your purpose of forgiveness. Its sensitivities are dormant, and you are likely to miss hundreds of opportunities to practice forgiveness if you do not actively pause and look regularly.

Several Gentle Healing participants have told me that this group takes a lot of time. Yes, it does. But as this lesson points out, this is the purpose of time.

The way that I got to the current state of healing that I have achieved is by making healing my fulltime job and the most important thing in my life. It is what everything else is about. If you really want to achieve healing, your commitment cannot be less than this.

When healing is a priority in your life, something in you is motivated toward the tools and practices that help you heal. It isn’t something you have to do because someone outside of you told you to do it. It is something you are intrinsically motivated to do.

That doesn’t mean it’s always easy. It isn’t. There can be great resistance during this process. But remember what NTI said. The means for overcoming great resistance is great willingness, and great willingness comes from remembering what you want.

Footnotes:

1. This is a sample day from my 2005 forgiveness journal.
2. This is the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as told in NTI.

Our current goals:

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

The false self is nothing but thought. It isn’t a self at all. It has no life. Only awareness-life-presence has life. Only that which has life can be a genuine self. However, when the attention aspect of awareness-life-presence becomes engrossed in thought, it appears that life and thought are one. This creates the illusion of the false self.

In order to claim awareness-life-presence as our identity, we need to release the illusion that we are thought. A good way to release the illusion that we are thought is to observe thoughts without getting hooked on them.

Let me demonstrate:

Let’s imagine I am in a work relationship with someone. I am working with this person on an important project that has many challenges. We are working on one particular challenge that needs to be resolved before we can move to the next set of challenges. A deadline is looming. I begin to notice that my co-worker isn’t doing his part of the research. My mind begins to tell me that we are going to fail because he is avoiding his share of the work.

As someone who is embracing my true identity, I say to myself, “I see that thought, but I don’t know what is supposed to happen here. I don’t know what is going to happen here. My only role is to do my part and watch the rest.”

With that, I ‘unhook’ from thoughts that were asking for attention.

That’s how forgiveness works. Forgiveness doesn’t deny thought and it doesn’t believe thought either. It acknowledges the presence of thought, but doesn’t give it meaning.

Reason is the ability in the mind that enables humans to make decisions using logic. In the example above, I used logic to convince myself to let go of a particular line of thinking. This use of reason could be called right-reason.

Today’s lesson talks about how we misuse reason. It says, “Without [the kindly light of forgiveness] we grope in darkness, using reason but to justify our rage and our attack.”

The purpose of reason is to enable us to make decisions that are in our best interest. But when we misuse reason, “what we think we understand is but confusion born of error. We are lost in mists of shifting dreams and fearful thoughts, our eyes shut tight against the light.”

We need to return reason to its proper function.

The Yoga Vasistha is a Hindu text named after a Vedanta sage, Vasistha. A quote from The Yoga Vasistha says, “So long as one does not subdue the mind with the mind, one cannot attain Self-knowledge.”

That quote points to the importance of the proper use of reason. We can use reason to justify our attachment to thought or we can use reason to unhook from that attachment. The latter is using the mind to subdue the mind. It’s how we practice forgiveness, which today’s lesson describes as the “function God would have me fill.”

Here’s something important to know about the right use of reason. When you use right-reason, thought may argue that you are using reason to deny the truth. In the example above, it might argue that I am denying the truth that my co-worker is a lazy butt.

It’s important to remember what today’s lesson says, “Forgiveness represents your function here. It is not God’s creation, for it is the means by which untruth can be undone … the means to let illusions go.”

In other words, right-reason is not the truth itself. It is an illusion used to release a greater illusion. So if thought argues that right-reason is not true, realize that’s okay. Letting go of the greater illusion is the current task at hand. That brings us closer to truth.

Right-reason is the means to right-dreams, “a kind so close to waking that the light of day already shines in them, … and leaves the world a clean and unmarked slate on which the Word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there before.”

“The way is simple. Every time you feel a stab of anger, realize you hold a sword above your head. And it will fall or be averted as you choose to be condemned or free.” You make the choice to be condemned or free through your use of reason. You will use it to justify thought or to unhook from thought. The latter is the choice for freedom.

Our current goals:

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

We have spent several days focusing on awareness-life-presence. Awareness-life-presence is our essence. It is the essence of all things.

Today’s lesson asks us to take one step beyond focusing on awareness-life-presence. It asks us to claim awareness-life-presence as our identity. We are to claim our essence as what we are.

The lesson tells us that the cause of all problems is the denial of our true identity. In other words, the cause of all problems is identifying with thought. You can see that’s true, if you want to. Look back at your memory. Every time you have acted mean or unjust with another person, it was because you identified with the thoughts that were in your mind at the time. If the thoughts said, “She’s lying to me,” you reacted as if your friend was a liar. Etcetera.

Because identifying with thought is the cause of all problems, identifying with awareness-life-presence is the answer to all problems.

How do you know if you are identified with thought or awareness-life-presence?

You know which you are identified with by how you give attention and how you act.

Today’s lesson calls identifying with thought “a game you play in which Identity can be denied.” And then it says, “You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you.”

The last line of that paragraph reminds me of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The highest interpretation of that rule is to live from your identity as awareness-life-presence. Or, as we said in lesson 187, be enlightened now.

There is a big difference in the way identification with thought acts and the way identification with awareness-life-presence acts. For example, let’s imagine that a friend asks me a question, and I answer truthfully, but my answer isn’t what she believes. She becomes angry and says, “You are a liar!”

At this point, defense thoughts are likely to be triggered in my mind. If I am identified with thought, I will say whatever the defense thoughts are telling me to say. If I am identified with awareness-life-presence, I will silently watch the show of defense that is happening in the mind, but I will remain in my seat as the watcher. Those words will not pass my lips. I also will not give them the energy of belief and agreement. I will stay seated within as watcher, merely observing and waiting for this temporary energy to pass.

The lesson says, “Look about the world, and see the suffering there. Is not your heart willing to bring your weary brothers to rest?” The lesson could also ask, “Are you ready to rest? Are you ready for the peace of God?”

Focusing on awareness-life-presence is an important first step, but we fall short of living our truth if we continue to speak and act from identification with thought. It is time to go beyond simply focusing on essence. It is time to live from it. Live as it. Living as awareness-life-presence is embracing truth and accepting it as what we are.

Our current goals:

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

I feel like I am whispering a great secret that most of the world does not want to know, a secret for which I can be slain, when I say:

You do not have to suffer.

There have been several times when friends were suffering, and I tried to help by letting them know they could let go of the idea that caused their suffering. Each time my friends have retaliated with attack. It was as if I was attacking them when I let them know how easy it is to be free of suffering, and so they attacked back.

I suppose I was attacking them. I was attacking their attachment to suffering without realizing how much they still wanted it. It was like trying to take a worn out stuffed animal from a child before the child is ready to give it up.

You may think you don’t love suffering, but are you sure you’re right? The best way to find out is to answer this question for yourself: Do you suffer over anything ever? If the answer is ‘yes,’ then you are still clinging to that worn out toy.

Just like everyone else, I used to believe that suffering was the natural outcome of certain circumstances. Gradually I let go of that idea. The final stronghold for me was the belief that I had to suffer because of extreme physical pain. I came to see even that is not true. All suffering is caused by thought that we choose to believe, and there isn’t another cause of suffering at all.

Each time I pointed out to friends that they could let go of suffering, and they became angry with me, they always indicated that their form of suffering was special. Thiers was the special circumstance that validated suffering. This is a clue that points to a thought in the mind, a thought that this lesson is helping to uncover. The idea is that suffering is more real than God (than truth).

That belief is in your mind if you suffer. I know, because I uncovered it in my own mind. The ego clings to that idea, because that idea protects the ego thought system. It seems to confirm that the ego thought system is truth, and the teachings about truth are merely idle fantasy. The worn out toy that you cling to when you suffer is the false self.

Here are a few things that today’s lesson says about the choice to suffer:

• “Pain is a wrong perspective.”
• “Pain is but witness to the Son’s mistakes in what he thinks he is.
• “Pain is a sign illusions reign in place of truth.”
• “It is your thoughts alone that cause pain.”
• “There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression.”
• “No one but yourself affects you.”
• “The world may seem to cause you pain. And yet the world, as causeless, has no power to cause. As an effect, it cannot make effects. As an illusion, it is what you wish.”
• “Pain is the ransom you have gladly paid not to be free.”
• “Pain is illusion; joy is reality.”
• “Pain is deception; joy alone is truth.”

The attachment to suffering is a deeply held attachment. This is why my friends felt attacked when I pointed out they did not have to suffer. If you’d like to be free of that attachment, here’s what you can do:

When you suffer, look to see if you can see your choice to suffer. The choice could be a very simple decision. It could be as simple as the decision, “I can not be happy with this.” Look for what you believe must be different.

As you look for your choice to suffer, you may find several little things that you can change your mind about when you see them. For example, you might be able to quickly let go of the idea that you have to suffer if it’s too hot, or if the husband is late to dinner, or if there is traffic on the highway, etcetera. Each little change of mind is important, because you are reversing the decision to cling to suffering.

Either now or eventually, you will come to the choice to suffer itself. This will appear as a belief, something that you took as absolutely true. It may feel impossible to let go of it when you see it. My recommendation is that you acknowledge it as a belief rather than a truth, and give your willingness for it to be healed. Let grace take care of the rest.

In other words, demonstrate your willingness to let go of the belief in suffering by changing your mind with the little things, and give your willingness with the apparent bigger things. This is how the attachment to suffering will be undone.

If you’d like to hear the story about how the attachment to suffering was finally undone for me, you can listen to this audio.

Letting go of the attachment to suffering is not a little thing. It is letting go of a critical defense in the ego thought system.

Our current goals:

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

Yesterday’s Course lesson told us, ““Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient. It alone has the power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within.”

Today’s lesson gives us more specific instructions:

“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.”

Our job is to let go of “all obstacles that you have interposed between the Son and God the Father … And with this choice we rest.”

That’s it. Nothing more. The Course calls this “simplicity.”

It reminds me of Michael Langford’s instructions for awareness-watching-awareness. He writes:

“One of the things you might wonder is what to do after you start watching your awareness. There is nothing else to be done.  You just continue with awareness watching awareness. … Just continue for the entire practice session watching your awareness. Only awareness watching awareness and nothing else.

Don’t expect any type of experience. If you are wondering if you will have some kind of spiritual experience, then that very wondering means you have added something to awareness watching awareness. Never add anything to awareness watching awareness.

The key is to be content just watching your awareness and not to move from that and not to add anything to that. …

If you wonder if the state is going to deepen, that very wondering means you have added something to the Awareness Watching Awareness practice. Never add anything to the Awareness Watching Awareness Method. Just be content with awareness watching awareness.

You should look at it like awareness watching awareness is all there is, there is nothing more.”

The Course is clear that we remove the obstacles, we rest in awareness-watching-awareness, and “do not make demands, nor point the road to God by which He should appear to you. The way to reach Him is merely to let Him be. For in that way is your reality proclaimed as well.”

Or as Michael Langford writes:

“Here is a way to look at it: Awareness watching awareness is a little like falling in love. You spend time with someone. You watch them. You observe them. But you do not yet know them. You continue to observe them. You don’t have expectations, because you don’t know them well enough yet to have expectations. You just keep on observing.

Some days you have pleasant feelings while you observe them. Some days you have unpleasant feelings while you observe them. You continue to observe them.

Everyday you are coming to know them better, even though you may not be aware that you are coming to know them better. Then one day suddenly and unexpectedly, you have fallen in Love.

Awareness watching awareness is a little like that. Just don’t expect anything, and continue watching your awareness. The fact that nothing is happening is great! If it seems like day after day it is just the same, only awareness watching awareness, that is great! Just remain content with that.”

Here is a song by Rickie Byars Beckwith that inspires me to practice awareness-watching-awareness in exactly the way today’s lesson encourages:

Our current goals:

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

Yesterday we practiced “Be enlightened now.” Today we notice enlightenment is what we are.

Today’s workbook lesson is very clear. It says, “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. … The light can not be lost. Why wait to find it in the future, or believe it has been lost already, or was never there? … look within, for there all vision starts.”

And then the lesson gives us very clear instructions for what we are to do:

“Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient. It alone has the power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. They know the way. For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy messengers of God Himself.”

Here, the Course makes clear why we practice awareness-watching-awareness meditation. “It alone has the power to give the gift of sight to you.”

Why is this practice so important?

Truth is ever-present. We’ve spent several days noticing that awareness-life-presence is ever-present. However, any human who chooses to be honest can also see that even though awareness-life-presence is ever-present, it can be ignored and forgotten (and typically is) when we focus on the outside world and our thoughts about the outside world.

The more focus we put on the outside world and our thoughts about the outside world, the more we are unaware of ever-present awareness-life-presence.

What can we do to reverse that?

Focus in reverse. Spend time each day ignoring the world and our thoughts about the world, and place attention directly with awareness-life-presence.

If you look at this simple teaching without resistance, it makes perfect sense.

Today’s lesson tells us that perception’s source is awareness-life-presence. That’s true. Without awareness-life-presence, you could not perceive the sound of a bird’s song or the sound of waves rolling onto the beach, the sight of a beautiful sunset or the sight of a herd of deer moving through the pines, etc. Therefore, you can always take short breaks from thought throughout the day to notice that you are awareness-life-presence. However, concentrated time noticing this fact while ignoring everything else is most helpful. I recommend both concentrated time in awareness-watching-awareness meditation and short glimpses throughout the day.

Today’s lesson makes two points that I would like to highlight:

First, while pointing to the practice of awareness-watching-awareness, it mentions that this practice reminds us we are the “co-creator of all things that live.” Usually when people refer to us as co-creators, they are talking about our thoughts. For example, our hate thoughts help co-create the images of hate in the world, etc. However, today’s lesson refers to a more fundamental nature of creation. It points out that all things are awareness-life-presence, as we are. Our fundamental nature is the fundamental nature of all things. In this way, nothing is separate from us and everything is an extension of what we are.

Secondly, today’s lesson says, “Who recognizes it within himself must give it. And the means for giving it are in his understanding. He forgives because he recognized the truth in him.” In other words, one who recognizes that he is awareness-life-presence lives ‘be enlightened now’ instead of living from attachment to his thoughts.

Today we will continue our basic practices while remembering, “The peace of God is shining in me now.” We will practice awareness-watching-awareness meditation. We will pause and glimpse awareness-life-presence throughout the day, and we will ‘be enlightened now’ including practicing self-inquiry as needed.