Lesson 45: God is the Mind with which I think.
I admit, most of the time, I am not in my right mind. I believe all the thoughts that pass through my head in any given moment. I believe the thought that someone I love is mad at me, or the thought that my boss is plotting my demise because some other thought told me that I should feel guilty for screwing up an assignment. Other thoughts tell me that the world is on fire and I can’t do anything about it and that all leaders are liars and cheats anyway and the world would be better off without humans.
So many thoughts, sparking so many worthless anxieties, fears and doubts. Sure, there are some happy thoughts in the mix, but they are usually overwhelmed by fear- or guilt-based thoughts that seem to take root much more quickly in my psyche.
“Salvation,” A Course in Miracles says in chapter 4, “is nothing more than ‘right-mindedness,’ which is not the One-mindedness of the Holy Spirit, but which must be achieved before One-mindedness is restored.”
Today’s lesson is the Holy’s offer to accept salvation – that “right-mindedness” that leads to the next step of remembering that our mind is already joined with that Holy One Mind that we have never truly left.
A changed perception is a miracle in this place of bodily space and time, but it is not our final destination. Perception, when we finally become enlightened beings, is replaced by knowledge – the absolute knowing of a peace beyond all understanding and perception.
To get to this place, though, requires “purification,” or the realization that there is another way to see the world – not through the ego’s physical eyes, but through the eyes of our true, Divine Self – the inner Christ we all possess. Today’s lesson reminds us that there is also another way to think about the world – not through the ego’s thoughts of judgment and comparison – but through the Divine mind where judgment and comparison no longer exist.
If we are the embodiment of holiness in the world, then all of God’s attributes remain within us – the ability to see innocence all around us, the ability to think rightly, which means not using our ego thoughts to drive our lives, but turning to those deeper, Divine thoughts, that imagine a world without fear, greed, hatred or despair.
When we think with the ego’s thoughts, we’re always making comparisons, always either wary of what to do, or foolishly jumping into situations without thinking them through. Using the ego’s thoughts to guide our actions is usually the best way to make any situation worse instead of better. It’s also the fastest way to inaction, because the ego will tell us that what God expects from us in this world is impossible – ridiculous even. “Save the world? Who do you think you are?” the ego scoffs.
When we think with the Mind of God, however, we become more deliberative. We become willing to surrender the ego’s loud and seemingly logical thoughts to the Holy and become willing to listen more deeply for Divinely inspired thoughts.
Our free will, the Course tells us, is used correctly when it aligns with God’s will. This exercise is a way to begin that alignment. As the lesson says: “… what God would have us do is what we want to do. And we will also try to remember that we cannot fail in doing what He would have us do. There is every reason to feel confident that we will succeed today. It is the Will of God.”
Hafiz puts it this way:
“Free will is an illusion.
“God spoke your every word in His mind before
your birth. And one movement of His hand
contained your every act.
“There is an Infinite Knowledge that has always
existed, and in it resides everything. And that will
someday dawn on you, for you are the Infinite’s
heir.
“Real Knowing never makes love to choice, or even
considers the un-predestined an option.
“For maybe and choice … are words one outgrows.
Sill, fire burns; and who is not careful around it?“
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