LESSON 125. In quiet I receive God’s Word today.

Today’s lesson seeks to lead us in the practice that is key to our awakening. This is the practice of listening to Inner Wisdom. “Let this day be a day of stillness and of quiet listening. Your Father wills you hear His Word today. He calls to you from deep within your mind where He abides. Hear Him today.”

While the lesson asks us to devote three 10 minute periods to practicing listening only within, it is really encouraging us to take this stillness with us throughout the day and all our days. It is only through such inner focus that we find true peace and happiness.

The degree to which we are unhappy or suffering, is the degree to which we choose the opposite of inner wisdom. This fact can be painful for some people to look at with absolute honesty. Some people will avoid accepting that statement as true, even though it would be really helpful to 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 that happiness comes from following guidance.

By losing interest in the voice in our heads and focusing on the voice of Inner Wisdom, we free ourselves from the pain and suffering inherent in listening to the thinking mind. “God’s plan is simply this: The Son of God is free to save himself, given the Word of God to be his Guide, forever in his mind and at his side to lead him surely to his Father’s house by his own will, forever free as God’s.”

Note that the stillness does not come without your invitation. Your silence (withdrawing attention from the thinking mind) is that invitation. “His Voice awaits your silence, for His Word can not be heard until your mind is quiet for a while, and meaningless desires have been stilled. Await His Word in quiet.”

If you find yourself unhappy or suffering, look to see what voice you are listening to. Whose counsel are you seeking? Listening to the voice of Inner Wisdom brings peace. Be silent, trust, and know the peace of God that is you. And, just as you normally follow the guidance of the thinking mind, look to see the Guidance given by Inner Wisdom. Practice that guidance.

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. The more we do that, the clearer the voice becomes.

Lesson 124, Let me remember I am one with God.

For years my family and I had Course in Miracles meetings. We would invite others with like interest to join us, but often it was just me and a sister or two and Dad and probably Mom. I remember gathering around the conference table at the family business and closing the doors so we could really get into it. At one of these meetings it came to us, quite clearly, that we should let everything be about our spiritual unfoldment. A few years later when Jacquelyn and I were together, we came to the realization that not only should we let everything be about our unfoldment, but that everything IS about our spiritual unfoldment. All we really have to do is notice the miracles.

Today’s lesson says, “No meaningless anxieties can come between our faith and our awareness of His Presence. We are one with Him today in recognition and remembrance. We feel Him in our hearts. Our minds contain His Thoughts, our eyes behold His Loveliness in all we look upon. Today we see only the loving and the lovable.”

Jacquelyn quoted NTI Luke 9 yesterday. It says, “See all things as an opportunity to learn and to practice, and to be grateful for all things. There is nothing that will be placed in your path that is not a gift from Me. See it as your gift and you are blessed indeed.”

At some point on our spiritual journey we saw the movie “The Secret”. For me the most memorable part of the movie was when they showed a tablet or maybe it was a book laid open. On one page it had all the positive feelings we might have like love and joy and peace. On the other side it listed negative feelings like hate and sadness and fear. The message was: rejoice when you feel the positive feelings because that is who you are, but rejoice also when you notice that you are feeling the negative feelings because they are your barometer. They show you that you have temporarily forgotten who you are. If you are feeling the negative feelings you have forgotten the truth about you. The truth about you is you are one with God.

Today’s lesson says, “We see [the loving and the lovable] in the appearance of pain, and pain gives way to peace. We see it in the frantic, in the sad and the distressed, the lonely and afraid, who are restored to the tranquility and peace of mind in which they were created. And we see it in the dying and the dead as well, restoring them to life. All this we see because we saw it first within ourselves.”

Our lesson today asked us to “devote a half an hour to the thought that [we] are one with God.” It goes on to say, “Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will see your own transfiguration in the glass his holy half an hour will hold out to you, to look upon yourself. When you are ready you will find it there, within your mind and waiting to be found.”

I would caution you, do not try to measure your spiritual progress because it isn’t possible for us to know how much progress we have made. But notice your feelings. Are they loving and expansive like our identity in God or are they on the other side of the page lighting the way even in their negativity back to our sanity where we remember we are one with God? Notice that everything is about your spiritual unfoldment and you will also notice as our lesson tells us, “And everything we see reflects the holiness within the mind at one with God and with itself.”

Lesson 123, I thank my Father for His gifts to me.

As I sat in meditation this morning after reading the lesson, I once again returned to that familiar space beyond thought and realized/remembered that what comes unbidden as I enter here is gratitude. I got the sense then that gratitude is my natural state of being. Upon rereading the lesson as I write this tip, I feel joy well up within me as I contemplate these words:

“A day devoted now to gratitude will add the benefit of some insight into the real extent of all the gains which you have made; the gifts you have received. … Give thanks as well that you are changeless … Thanks be to you who heard, for you become the messenger who brings His Voice with you, and lets It echo round and round the world. Receive His thanks, and you will understand how lovingly He holds you in His Mind, how deep and limitless His care for you, how perfect is His gratitude to you.”

What a love story in this perfect exchange of self with Self—if only momentarily recognized. I am grateful for my willingness and the gifts it brings. I am thankful for my spiritual aspiration and the guidance of Inner Wisdom. I am grateful that the Truth is true and for the felt sense of knowing that nothing else is true.

Last week, when reading Chapter 4 from the Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, we learned how important the intense desire for freedom is. We were told that it will bring us everything that is needed for success in the “quest for Freedom including the answer to all your questions, the Direct Path teachings, the solution to all obstacles, the motivation to practice, etc.” We were told that the intense desire for freedom will guide us to our inner Teacher. “Of all the factors that determine if you will or will not be free, the intensity or lack of intensity of your desire for Freedom is the most essential factor. Whatever you can do to most effectively increase your desire for Freedom should be done.”

And so, today we take a day of gratitude in order to increase our desire for freedom.

What should we be grateful for? Here are some things that NTI recommends we be grateful for:

~ “Be grateful for all that is true. All that is true is this: Life, Love, sharing, extension and joy.” ~ NTI Luke 24

~ “It is true that peace is cause for rejoicing and gratitude. It is through gratitude that peace is extended.” So be grateful for peace. ~ NTI 1 Thessalonians 3

~ “Be grateful for the process that is God” That is, be grateful that giving and receiving are one. “In this way, you come to know within awareness that which is God, and you come to accept and love thy Self.” ~ NTI 1 Timothy 4

~ “Teach the mind to be subject to the Heart by being grateful for the desire of the Heart. Through gratitude, desire is stretched within the mind. Let the desire for Love expand within the mind that is conscious, and the conscious mind will give more willingness to rest at the feet of the Heart.” ~ NTI Titus 2

~ “One may rejoice over progress as he notices his perception is being healed. … The transition to true perception is glory. Have gratitude for your Self and this miracle, which is the symbol of your own true desire.” ~ NTI 1 Peter 1

~ “Be grateful for reminders to rest [the thinking mind].” ~ NTI Revelation 19

~ “See all things as an opportunity to learn and to practice, and be grateful for all things. There is nothing that will be placed in your path that is not a gift from Me. See it as your gift and you are blessed indeed.” ~ NTI Luke 9

So today, let’s take time to be grateful as we increase our desire for Freedom.