The universe played a little joke on me today. I awoke to two Awakening Together technical problems that needed to be looked at over coffee. This was before opening the Course to see today’s lesson.

What I noticed as I looked at these technical problems was the ‘sensibleness’ that led the looking. It was a feeling of “Here is what I can do now; here is what I can’t do now.” There was no artificial sense of over-responsibility or a lot of chatter about ‘me’ and ‘others’ and ‘the problem.’

Today’s workbook lesson is another lesson that teaches a ‘skill’ that helps us awaken. Notice how we are to begin our longer practice periods. We notice a person that we have a grievance against. We hold that person in our mind, and we review that one as we see her now. We examine her faults, etc. We let it all come out of denial to be looked at. We be honest about all of our grievances against this one person.

That’s important. As NTI 1 Thessalonians points out, we have a habit of automatically denying the thoughts we have that intrude upon our peace. To heal, we reverse that process. First we let everything come out of denial so we can look at it, and then we ….

Before I finish that sentence, let me share an image that may be helpful. Imagine yourself as a glass of water, except you aren’t a glass of clear water. You are a glass of murky, dirty water. As water, this makes you suffer, because you have an inherent desire to be clean water. The reason you are murky is because there is about 2 inches of mud at the bottom of the glass. Some sediment from the mud floats up and causes the murkiness. In order to be clean again, that mud needs to be lifted up from the bottom of the glass, carried to the surface and removed. When all of the mud is removed, the water will be clear again.

That is what we are doing when we look at our grievances (or fears, guilt & unworthiness) honestly. We are reaching down in our glass to the mud packed at the bottom (repressed thoughts & perceptions) and lifting the mud up so it can be removed from the glass.

So as I was saying, first we let everything come out of denial so we can look at it, and then we …

Well, the next step really depends. You might:

• Ask God, Holy Spirit or Jesus to help you see another way. I used to imagine wrapping those thoughts, feelings and perceptions in a box, tying a beautiful bow around the box and then giving it to Holy Spirit as a gift. As I passed the gift to Holy Spirit, I let it go completely. After all, you aren’t giving a gift if you hold onto it, right?

• Practice rest, accept and trust while realizing you don’t want this anymore. This is a practice I moved to after I became more experienced with forgiveness.

• Practice inquiry, such as Byron Katie’s “The Work,” until you see through your previous way of thinking.

• Refocus your attention on awareness, and let the realization of truth heal the silly thoughts that you believed before.

No matter which of these practices feels right and genuine for you, you are letting the mud be removed from the glass. When the mud is removed, you will experience the ‘miracle’ of peace-acceptance. You will be able to let the person remain exactly as she is without wanting her to change in any way. If the mud is heavily packed in the bottom of your glass, you may find you will have to do this more than once before you experience compete peace-acceptance, but that’s okay. It’s worth it.

For years, I found it helpful to practice forgiveness through journaling. Now I prefer to do it through a meditation practice, like the one recommended in today’s workbook lesson. Either way, I recommend taking this skill as a practice that you continue beyond today’s workbook lesson. Learn to look at the grievances you have with anyone and anything. Look and let go. This is how we clear the mud away. It’s a silent practice. No one else needs to know you are doing it

There are many wonderful pointers in this lesson. Let’s look at each of them briefly:

“You are entitled to miracles because of what you are.” – Yesterday’s tip encouraged you to ask, “What am I?” Today’s lesson begins by prompting us to look in the same direction. “What am I?”

This lesson says something very important. “… how simple is salvation.”

Our confusion is thinking we need something other than salvation to save us. We think we need a healthy or beautiful body, a certain amount of money, a certain quality of relationship, etc. And because we think we need these things, we then think we need to get them by either the laws of the world or through divine intervention. Either idea is the same mistake. The mistake stems from a fundamental error, the belief that we are bodies.

Read this lesson slowly at least 3 times today.

That’s it. That’s my tip. Love

Some people feel fear, sacrifice or doubt upon hearing the idea, “There is no will but God’s,” but that is due to a lack of understanding. God’s will is what you are, life-awareness-intelligence-open-freedom. You are that, and in being that you are God’s will.

The funny thing is, you can’t stop being that (even though you can deny you are that), so you can’t stop being God’s will.

You are God’s will.

So now that we’ve got the truth out there, let’s look at the rest of this workbook lesson. There are three more important points in today’s lesson.

During the longer practice today, you are asked to “deal quickly with any conflict thoughts that may cross your mind. Tell yourself immediately: There is no will but God’s. These conflict thoughts are meaningless.”

This is the same teaching that we find in NTI 1 Thessalonians:

“When fear intrudes on peace, you will hear it if you are listening. There will seem to be a slight upset, a stab thrust upon your peace, and an immediate desire to deny the thought or feeling that has intruded on your peace. … Do not accept temptation to deny the interruptions to peace. Pick them up and look at them in joy. For you have recognized that which you were tempted to deny. Do not deny the thought that has occurred, and do not accept it. Set it aside because it is not true. And continue joyously on the path of peace.”

Today’s workbook lesson and NTI 1 Thessalonians outline the practice that heals our mind.

1. Look at it.
2. Let it go.

And if you do that with joy or with the heart, it will be twice as effective.

Here’s the way it works for me. Let’s say I feel some agitation that is caused by resisting what is. I say to myself, “I see this resistance.” Immediately I feel some relaxation, which is caused by acknowledging it instead of denying it. Next, I ask myself, “What do I really want?” I remember my purpose, my heart opens, and with the intelligent peace of the open heart, I let it go (which may look like letting it be).

This is the practice that consistently and gently lets go of ego until there is nothing left to let go of.

Another great thing about today’s workbook lesson is that it takes another step in teaching meditation. We are asked to close our eyes and relax during meditation, but there is a difference between meditating and falling asleep. For me, there is a thin line between the two, and I need a lot of focus to meditate without falling asleep. If I do not remain aware of the fact that I am meditating, I will fall asleep. I have learned to pull myself back into awareness whenever the mind begins to drift into sleep. This workbook lesson is teaching that skill, so if falling asleep is a challenge for you, pay close attention to the instructions in this lesson.

Finally, in “The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss,” Michael Langford writes: “For some people it might take a few days, others a few weeks and others a few months to start to feel something. At first it is subtle and you won’t know what it is, but you will know that you like it. It is pleasant. A new subtle feeling. You are beginning to feel: eternal life-love-peace.”

Tess Hughes said the same thing in the Awakening Together Satsang. That’s what today’s Course lesson teaches too. It says, “Joy characterizes peace. By this experience you will recognize that you have reached it.”

Think about how simple that is! You are literally reaching God/Truth when meditation feels pleasant. You might experience it as lack of stress or worry, as tingling in the head, as an open heart or devotional feel, as butterflies in the belly or tingling in the legs and toes. It could show up in another way too, but when meditation feels good, you are reaching God. You are doing it !!!!!

This is important, because some people fail to recognize success in meditation because they are looking for bigger bells and whistles. Truth is subtle and simple, but it will change you. It will awaken you. So stay alert and follow the simple instructions for meditation. That is all there is to it.

This is an optional 1-hour audio that summarizes the process for letting go of ego.

Listen to this audio

Based on the video, The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Alan Carr

Today we cross a threshold. We have stepped into a new level of commitment within ourselves. We are more willing for truth-realization today than we were yesterday.

Now we know that we crave pain and suffering, regardless of whether we experience that as grievances, stress, arrogance, unworthiness, guilt, jealousy, anger, suspiciousness, self-hatred, fear, worry, inertia, or whatever. We also know that we want happiness-love-freedom more than we want suffering. It is the latter realization that has ushered us across the threshold to a deeper commitment.

Today’s workbook lesson says, “the ego is the physical embodiment of [its wish to replace God].” We saw how this “physical embodiment” occurs in the move, “What the Bleep Do We Know?”

First, there is the ego. It is the idea of “me.” The brain as a whole does not have this idea. It collects data from the senses and processes that data without the bias of an idea like “me.” However, because we are attached to the idea of me, we filter through the data the brain collects and processes, and we pay attention to only the very little bit of data that centers around “me.” According to “What the Bleep,” the brain processes 4,000,000,000 bits of data per second and we choose to be aware of only 2,000 bits of that data. That is a very limited perspective!

Today, I burst out laughing when I read, ”The role assigned to your own mind in this plan, then, is simply to determine what, other than itself, must change if you are to be saved.”

What a silly idea! This is saying that we believe suffering is salvation. To discover this for yourself, notice how you feel when your mind says, “If this were different (or if he/she/I were different), I would be saved (happy, safe, loved, etc).” Notice that as your mind chatters about what needs to be different, you aren’t happy. In that very moment, happiness is hidden from you. The thought that ‘something needs to be different’ is suffering.

Logically, can suffering be salvation?

It gets crazier, we also believe salvation is suffering. To see this, notice how you feel when you are asked to allow a situation/person to be as it is. Sometimes it seems as if allowing things to be as they are is unthinkable! Also, notice how you feel when you are asked to surrender (let go of) the way you think.

When we notice that we believe suffering is salvation and salvation is suffering, we see how confused our way of thinking is. We also see that we need help that comes from beyond our confused, habitual way of thinking.

In today’s workbook lesson, we are instructed to ask God, “What would You have me do? Where would You have me go? What would You have me say, and to whom?”

In my experience, it is entirely possible that you will hear something when you ask these questions, and it is entirely possible that you won’t. However, either situation can be success. Let me explain how.

When something was weighing on my mind, such as a grievance or fear, a time of quiet ‘asking for guidance’ led me to see the situation differently. I received guidance regarding my mind in the situation. When this type of guidance came, I wrote it down. It doesn’t matter if it was brief or a long conversation with God, I found writing it down helpful so I could reflect on it, accept it, and follow it.

However, if there was nothing weighing on my mind, I usually did not receive guidance during a quiet time of ‘asking.’ Instead, I felt peace or devotion as I sat quietly, but later in the day guidance would spontaneously arise when I needed it. I had opened a channel during the quiet time of sitting, and the channel was being used when it was needed.

We need guidance that is beyond the thinking mind. We open to this guidance by asking for it, and then by being receptive to receive it. In the Tess Hughes video, she called this “prayer.” Prayer was one of the three practices that she recommended for the spiritual aspirant. The other two were meditation and inquiry. As we move forward with Consistent, Gentle Healing, we will incorporate all three practices into our lives more and more.

Here is an example of guidance that I received when something was weighing on me:

Situation: Because of a snow storm, I cancelled my commitment to attend a meeting at a friend’s house about a proposed new tax. I was supposed to bring muffins for everyone. My daughter, who was 7 years old, was looking forward to playing with the other kids who would be there. I felt guilty for canceling and letting everyone down.

Question: Spirit, what would you have me see in this situation? What shall I do?

Answer: See that you believe the guilt. You aren’t just noticing that you feel guilty. You believe that you are guilty. You believe that you are guilty because you made commitments that you are breaking, and there is a concept in your mind that to be good you must be responsible, and to be responsible you must keep your commitments. You are also feeling selfish since you made this decision because you did not want to go in this weather. You feel you did not think of your friend’s feelings or your daughter’s feelings before making the decision, and you believe a good person would have considered the feelings of everyone; a good person would have thought of everyone as Self. You do not see yourself as being a good person. This is why you feel guilty.

Now look at that. There are concepts in your mind that tell you that you are good or bad, based on what you do or do not do, or even based on what you think. You believe this. You cannot see your way out of believing this. You believe that it is true that you must behave in a certain way or you are not good. And yet, there are several opportunities everyday for you not to behave according to your own standards for good.

Stop deciding for yourself what is good. I tell you that you are good. Good has no opposite just as Love has no opposite. Good and Love are One, and One is all there is. This is what you have not accepted with your concepts of good and bad. You believe there are opposites and you believe you can judge what is what. All of this you must let go of.

Instead of this burden that you have laid upon yourself, try this instead. Give your burden to me. Say, “I know I must be wrong.” Hand it to me without reservation of any concept that you believe must be true. Be willing to be fully wrong and ready for rest.

Now, sit quietly and open yourself to Love. Trust that Love will fill your mind. As the lightness begins to come in, welcome it. Let it be at home in your mind. Enjoy the lightness. You may feel a temptation to feel guilty for enjoying the lightness. I am still with you, and you may hand that temptation over to me. Think of me standing beside you waiting to take each burden as it comes to your mind. Hand it over quickly. You do not need to examine it or ask if it is true. I relieve you of that duty. I will judge for you. Hand it to me and let me take care of it. You are free to enjoy the lightness in your mind. That is what I want you to do . . . enjoy the lightness in your mind.

And now, notice as the lightness becomes brighter. It is more than lightness now, it is happiness. Happiness is blossoming within your mind. Accept it. It is yours. I give it to you. It is my gift to you, and it makes me happy to see you accept it.

Notice your heart. Notice the feeling in your heart. That is love. That is your love. Focus on the love that is within you and notice that it is you. This is your reality, and this love you have to give is not dependent on what you do or do not do in your life. This love is always there and you are always willing to share it. Feel this love, and let yourself be fully immersed in it. This is you. Within this love, you can see that it does not matter what you do or do not do; you are always free to extend this love in any situation. Do not worry about what you do or what you decide. It isn’t important. Stay with the love and be willing to extend the love. Rest your mind and place your faith in me. If you do this, everything else will be natural for you.

The rest of the story: My daughter was very disappointed that we didn’t go to her friend’s house this morning. She cried for about twenty minutes. Within love, I held her while she cried without judging me, her or the snow for the situation. I loved her, knowing that she was OK, I’m OK and that the outcome would be happy.

When she was ready, we made alternate plans. I decided to stick with my original thought about not driving in today’s heavy snowfall. I suggested that we put on our snow boots, walk to McDonald’s for lunch and then walk to the nearby children’s science museum. My daughter hugged me and said, “Thank you, momma.” Then, we ate fresh, warm muffins for breakfast.

After returning to my right-mind, I was able to look at the “hell” I went through earlier. It’s clear that I had done nothing wrong in deciding not to drive to my friend’s house today. My only mistake was listening to the ego’s interpretation of that decision.