Gentle Healing 2 ~ Day 251 -NTI James 5

On Day 219, we learned that sin is only forgetfulness. To “sin” is to forget what you are and to act as if you are something different. It is mistaken identity.

The Bible tells the story of a man named Job, who was “blameless and upright.” Job was a lover of truth. He was also a rich man. Everything in manifestation flowed easily for Job. (Job 1, 2)

In the story, the wrong-mind and the right-mind have a figurative conversation as Satan and God. In the conversation, the wrong-mind, which is fixated on manifestation as the source of happiness, tells the right-mind that the only reason Job loves truth is because he has everything a man could want. The right-mind gives permission for the wrong-mind to manipulate the creative principle so that everything the wrong-mind sees as valuable is taken away from Job.

Job loses his wealth, his servants and his children. Although Job falls to his knees in grief when he hears about the death of his children, he cries out:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.

The wrong-mind, continuing to believe that manifestation is supreme, points out that Job still has a healthy body. Thinking that all men are self-centered, the wrong-mind feels sure that if Job loses his health, he will curse truth.

The right-mind gives the wrong-mind permission to manipulate the creative principle so that Job loses his health. The Bible continues:

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.

His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”

He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

In all this, Job did not sin (forget truth) in what he said.

Job’s heart was centered on truth. One who is centered on truth does not forget truth in the play of manifestation. Truth is of supreme importance to such a one. Reality is his beloved.

As long as we believe, to any degree, that happiness comes from manifestation, we will experience suffering. When we choose to love truth as supreme, manifestation may appear favorable or unfavorable, but it will not affect our heart-centered love of truth.

Here is a story told by Peace Pilgrim. In this story, Peace Pilgrim demonstrates her unwavering love for reality:

I was walking in a very isolated section of the high mountains of Arizona where there was no human habitation for many miles. That afternoon there came a surprising snowstorm, out of season. I have never seen such a storm. If the snow had been rain you would have called it a cloudburst. Never had I seen snow dumped down like that!

All of a sudden I was walking in deep snow and was unable to see through what was falling.

Suddenly I realized that the cars had stopped running. I supposed they were getting stuck on the highway and unable to pass.

Then it got dark. There must have been a heavy cloud cover. I could not see my hand before my face and the snow was blowing into my face and closing my eyes. It was getting cold. It was the kind of cold that penetrates into the marrow of the bone.

If ever I were to lose faith and feel fear, this would have been the time, because I knew there was no human help at hand. Instead, the whole experience of the cold and the snow and the darkness seemed unreal. Only God seemed real – nothing else.

I made a complete identification—not with my body, the clay garment which is destructible—but with the reality which activates the body and is indestructible.

I felt so free. I felt that everything would be all right, whether I remained to serve in this Earth life or if I went on to serve in another freer life beyond.

I felt guided to keep on walking, and I did, even though I couldn’t tell whether I was walking along the highway or out into some field. I couldn’t see anything. My feet in my low canvas shoes were like lumps of ice. They felt so heavy as I plodded along. My body began to turn numb with cold.

After there was more numbness than pain, there came what some would call a hallucination and what some would call a vision.

It was as though I became aware, not only of the embodied side of life where everything was black darkness, bitter cold and swirling snow, but also so close it seemed I could step right into it, of the disembodied side of life where everything was warmth and light.

There was such great beauty. It began with familiar color, but transcended familiar color. It began with familiar music, but transcended familiar music.

Then I saw beings. They were very far away. One of them moved toward me very quickly. When she came close enough, I recognized her. She looked much younger than she had looked when she passed over.

I believe that at the time of the beginning of the change called death, those nearest and dearest come to welcome us. I have been with dying friends who have stepped over and I remember well how they talked to their loved ones on both sides, as though they were all right there in the room together.

So I thought my time had come to step over and I greeted her. I either said or thought, “You have come for me?” But she shook her head! She motioned for me to go back! And just at that exact moment, I ran into the railing of a bridge. The vision was gone.

Because I felt guided to do so, I groped my way down that snowy embankment and got under the bridge. There I found a large cardboard packing box with wrapping paper in it. Very slowly and clumsily in my numb condition, I managed to get myself into that packing box, and somehow with my numbed fingers managed to pull the wrapping paper around me.

There under the bridge, during the snowstorm, I slept. Even there shelter had been provided; but provided also was this experience.

Had you looked at me in the midst of the snowstorm, you might have said, “What a terrible experience that poor woman is going through.”

But looking back on it I can only say, “What a wonderful experience in which I faced death, feeling no fear, but the constant awareness of the presence of God, which is what you take right over with you.”

The stories about Job and Peace Pilgrim are presented for a reason. At some point on the spiritual path, we have to choose what we will be loyal to in our hearts—manifestation or truth. As long as we choose manifestation, Self-realization will remain out-of-reach, because we desire illusion. The Son of God (consciousness) must experience what it wants to experience. That is the essence of freedom.

When we no longer see manifestation as supreme, but choose to align with truth in our hearts regardless of the appearances in manifestation, we are ready for truth realization. Truth realization will come swiftly at this point in your maturity, because you no longer desire anything else.