Which Teacher Do You Want To Follow in the Dream?

Hello my friends,

I hope you are all hanging in there!

I wanted to share an excerpt from my forthcoming book interwoven with a couple articles/blog posts I was asked to write these last couple of weeks.

This is a good time to remember Lesson 33: There is another way of looking at the world.

A Course in Miracles reminds us that it is not our outer perceptions that need to be changed, but our inner perceptions. Which teacher do we want to follow in the dream? There are two teachers in the mind: the ego and the Holy Spirit. The “other way of looking” at the world begins in our minds.

The ego mind gives us a never-ending list of things to be fearful of: losing our jobs, losing a loved one, global cabals of corruption or contracting a deadly virus.

It is important to be practical in the world, especially when there is a health threat or any global catastrophe that has temporarily caught our attention. When asked to follow certain guidelines in order to prevent a virus from spreading, we do it.

As a Course student, one would also remember the “hidden” threat. We fear going back and looking in our mind. The Course teaches that in our mind is the place we believed we “sinned” when we seemed to choose a separation thought (ego) over our oneness with God. The ego tells us if we go back to our minds, God will punish (annihilate) us for separating from him! Wow! Who wouldn’t be afraid of that?

When we choose the ego, we become the ego, culminating in the belief that we are an individual body in a world outside of us.

Fortunately, we also hold the Holy Spirit’s message of the atonement in our mind: the separation has not occurred. You have not killed off God in favor of an individual self. There is no threat in reality – no need to feel guilty and fear punishment for our “sin” of separation. You’re safe at home. You are dreaming a terrible dream where your very “special” existence is threatened at every turn! The “hidden” sickness (virus) is the mind’s belief in separation.

The Course teaches that sickness is a conflict in the mind that gets displaced on to the body through projection. Our belief in sickness (separation, lack of love) gets projected out into a myriad of forms. One of these forms of separation is a virus. So when we are in the ego mind, the external virus in the world of projection, is the threat. We forgot that we put it there. How do we handle this?

There is good news! When we remember we have the one answer— already present in the mind awaiting our acceptance— to every seeming problem, threat, scare or mild upset, we can turn the tables on the ego and use a virus or any other upset as our classroom in forgiveness.

We’re not forgiving something that is really there, but we believe it is, and so that is where we start our practice – in the world where we believe we are. This is how we use the Course in our everyday lives. We pay attention to what disturbs our peace, know that we have a choice in that moment, and then choose the Holy Spirit to help us re-translate what the body’s eyes are showing us.

Remember, we are being asked to change our interpretation of what the body’s eyes are reporting back to us. We are asked to forgive what hasn’t really happened because the world is just a dream. Since there are no hierarchies of illusions, they can all be looked at without judgment, and forgiven in the same way because they’re all untrue.

We strengthen the Holy Spirit’s thought system when we choose it. When you choose to perceive “the world” with true vision, that choice reflects out to the entire sonship, because you’re one with it. This is how the world is healed.

This practice leads to a different inner experience by undoing fear. The fear the ego desperately tries to keep in place becomes an experience of inner calm or inner peace. You still see the things going on in the world, but you strengthen the awareness that the world is not outside of you – it is in your mind and not really happening. except in your dream. The choice for the miracle will help you look at external “differences” in the same way; an illusion is an illusion, is an illusion. No exceptions. This takes courage, vigilance and willingness my friends!

We discriminate here between what we think of as a small upset, for example, all the way to the other extreme of intense anger or fear. The ego has set it up this way so we believe the whole time-space dream is reality. It’s ingenious, indeed. In Lesson 5 Jesus reminds us: There are no small upsets. They are all disturbing to my peace of mind.

In my practice I am always reminded that a virus, a financial problem, a difficult co-worker or family member, or horrific images on the news are all images in my mind. There is nothing out there but my own projection. This body called Jackie, and the whole projected world, is in my dreaming mind. The choice for the Holy Spirit, Jesus or any right – minded symbol you use, returns this thought to your awareness.

One seeming “external” problem I am having is no different than another. An illusion is an illusion is an illusion, after all. There is no hierarchy of illusions. There is no difficulty in miracles. The “miracle” of shifting from the ego as your internal teacher to the Holy Spirit as my internal teacher makes all the difference when you’re going through fear and uncertainty, anger or rage.

Steps I remember no matter what is happening on the screen of my life and in the world at large:

1. I go within

2.  I decide if I want to identify with my Christ Self or the ego self. Choosing to identify with my real identity as a child of God reminds me that I am the dreamer of this world of dreams, not the figure in the dream. Hence, I am not the victim of the world I see (Lesson 5), because I invented it.

Choosing to identify with the ego will keep you thinking your identity is the figure in the dream, resulting in fear, scarcity, victimhood and devastation.

3. Let go and allow the Holy Spirit’s thought system to replace the ego’s thought system. Do not pre-judge what this is supposed to look like – just practice forgiveness as best you can. Jesus gives you all the tools.

“There is no peace except the peace of God, because He has one Son who cannot make a world in opposition to God’s Will and to his own, which is the same as His. What could he hope to find in such a world? It cannot have reality, because it was never created. Is it here that he would seek for peace? Or must he see that, as he looks on it, the world can but deceive? Yet can he learn to look on it another way, and find the peace of God.”  – Lesson 200
Be well everyone.

When we heal one, we heal all.

I love you all.

Be well and stay in the light of remembering Who you really are.

Blessings,

Jackie

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