III. The Guide to Salvation 1-6
- The way to recognize your brother is by recognizing the Holy Spirit in him. I have already said that the Holy Spirit is the bridge for the transfer of perception to knowledge, so we can use the terms as if they were related, because in His Mind they are. This relationship must be in His Mind because, unless it were, the separation between the two ways of thinking would not be open to healing. He is part of the Holy Trinity because His Mind is partly yours and also partly God’s. This needs clarification, not in statement but in experience.
- The Holy Spirit is the idea of healing. Being thought, the idea gains as it is shared. Being the Call for God, is it also the Call of God. Since you are part of God it is also the idea of yourself, as well as of all His creations. The idea of the Holy Spirit shares the property of other ideas because it follows the laws of the Universe of which it is a part. It is strengthened by being given away. It increases in you as you give it to your brother. Your brother does not have to be aware of the Holy Spirit in himself or in you for this miracle to occur. He may have dissociated the Call for God, just as you have. This dissociation is healed in both of you as you become aware of the Call for God in him, and thus acknowledge its being.
- There are two diametrically opposed ways of seeing your brother. They must both be in your mind because you are the perceiver. They must also be in his because you are perceiving him. See him through the Holy Spirit in his mind, and you will recognize Him in yours. What you acknowledge in your brother you are acknowledging in yourself, and what you share you strengthen.
- The Voice of the Holy Spirit is weak in you. That is why you must share It. It must be increased in strength before you can hear It. It is impossible to hear It in yourself while It is so weak in your mind. It is not weak in Itself, but It is limited by your unwillingness to hear it. If you make the mistake of looking for the Holy Spirit in yourself alone your thoughts will frighten you because, by adopting the ego’s viewpoint, you are undertaking an ego-alien journey with the ego as guide. This is bound to produce fear.
- Delay is of the ego because time is its concept. Both time and delay are meaningless in eternity. I have said before that the Holy Spirit is God’s Answer to the ego. Everything of which the Holy Spirit reminds you is in direct opposition to the ego’s notions, because true and false perceptions are themselves opposed. The Holy Spirit has the task of undoing what the ego has made. He undoes it at the same level on which the ego operates, or the mind would be unable to understand the change.
- I have repeatedly emphasized that one level of the mind is not understandable to another. So it is with the ego and the Holy Spirit, with time and eternity. Eternity is an idea of God, so the Holy Spirit understands it perfectly. Time is a belief of the ego, so the lower mind, which is the ego’s domain, accepts it without question. The only aspect of time that is eternal is now.[1]
In today’s text, Jesus tells us that we recognize one another correctly when we recognize Holy Spirit in each other. As long as I am looking at you as if you are not saved, and I have something special to impart to you that you have resisted, I will not see you as my brother. I will not see Holy Spirit in you. I will think that I have something that you do not. I will believe that by some special blessing from God I am saved, while you are still a sinner and doomed to spend eternity in the netherworld.
However, when I recognize your holiness, I recognize the same mind in you. I recognize that you and I are one in the spirit. I cannot be saved if you are not saved; you cannot be lost, or I am lost. We are in the same boat. We are of the same Creation. This is healing because we are no longer divided; when we recognize our oneness in God, we are filled with joy. Joy is love. Love heals, renews, restores. When we recognize Holy Spirit, we will see it in everyone. Jesus tells us that there is no way to explain this in symbols, because it is experienced.
The call for God and the call of God are the same thing – we are not called of God to separate us from our brothers, we are called to God to heal, to unite, to complete the Sonship. If I am part of God, then all of Creation is part of God. Holy Spirit shares and teaches us to share because unlike the physical realm where things are lost that are given away, all things of the Spirit are increased by sharing. When I recognize Holy Spirit in you, I give you a miracle. I do not have to tell you, I do not have to tell anyone else about it, I can simply recognize Holy Spirit in you and the disconnection between you and God is healed, while my oneness with God is made stronger. This is how it works, Jesus says. We can talk about it all we want, but it is not until we practice this that we bring genuine healing and learn of its truth.
While I can choose to continue to see you as different from me and you can continue to see me as different from you, when I see you through Holy Spirit in your mind and bypass our physical differences, our egos, our material possessions and social status, I recognize Holy Spirit in my own mind. Whatever I acknowledge in you I am acknowledging in myself. As long as I see you as a sinner, I will need constant reassurance of my own salvation, for I will not recognize my own holiness. I will have something to prove. For whatever I share, even in my private thoughts toward you, I strengthen in my own mind about myself.
This is a very important spiritual concept to learn, to practice, and to vigilantly establish as a spiritual devotion. Snide and unholy thoughts about others will always be reflected back upon ourselves in the form of mental distress, physical ailments, and spiritual unrest. Choosing the thoughts of Holy Spirit which are appreciative, loving, kind, merciful, and joyful bring healing, health, and well-being to every aspect of our being. As we choose to see past our hurt feelings, the outrage and uproar over past wrongs, and exchange special relationships for holy relationships, our beings are filled with the light of God’s love. We return to our natural exuberance which the ego had stunted or practically abolished in our minds. We become conduits of God’s love and peace and joy.
In paragraph four, Jesus tells us that the voice of Holy Spirit can be weak in our minds and therefore impossible to hear because of our unwillingness to hear it. Holy Spirit, unlike the ego, does not barge in where It is not wanted. Quiet and still and calm, It is not loud, bossy, or clamorous. Holy Spirit must be acknowledged and welcomed for unlike the ego, He respects our boundaries and choices. The Voice for God never attempts to outshout another Voice for God. If we encounter someone who screams or even so much as raises their voices at us in the name of God, who lectures us about our sinfulness and ignorance, who threatens us with either spiritual or physical punishment, we will know that they have made a mistake and are allowing the ego to speak for God.
It is important to put our ego aside as we invite the Voice for God to share with us as we share with others. Spiritual journeys thrill the ego who find in them just another way in which to exalt itself. The ego will tell us all kinds of ridiculous things that will make us feel as if we are the next best thing to sliced bread and flush toilets. It will give us ideas about ourselves that simply are not true, sane, or holy, puffing us up while secretly mocking and tearing us down. Do not let the flash and glamor of cultish, ego-driven worship tempt you on your path to God. Brokenness and sorrow are the rewards of vain spiritual forays we make when we look for Holy Spirit through human forms, in egos, and through our lower minds which are captivated by appearances.
Holy Spirit stands for truth; the ego stands for untruth. God’s Answer to the ego is Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit’s function is to undo what the ego has made. Where the ego makes enmity; Holy Spirit restores brotherhood; where the ego has perceived a call to war, Holy Spirit perceives a call for help, for charity, for love; where the ego calls for separation, Holy Spirit calls for unity.
Opposed to one another, the lower mind and the higher mind cannot understand the other. The ego and Holy Spirit are like time and eternity. Eternity is of God and Holy Spirit understands always and forever perfectly; time is of the ego, so the lower mind accepts time without question.[2] This instant is the now of eternity, and in time it has already passed by the end of the sentence. However, now is the only aspect of time that is eternal. Now is the time of salvation means that we can step into salvation, into our higher minds, into that which stands for eternity, now. No need to put it off, no need to wait until we clean up our act, no need to wait until we sow our wild oats and get all the partying and carousing out of our systems. We spare ourselves and everybody else a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering by choosing against the ego now instead of later.
This is all we will cover of “The Guide to Salvation” segment for today. We will cover the last five paragraphs in tomorrow’s blog. Practice today shifting your thoughts away from the chatter of your lower mind to the quiet, calm, certain Voice of the higher regions of your mind. Choose thoughts that reflect God’s love and devotion, His mercy and affection for Creation rather than the tedious judgments, constant commentary, and banal likes and dislikes of the ego. While we are going about our daily routines, interacting with our coworkers, our family, our friends remember the accompanying lesson idea from our Workbooks for today’s text reading: “I am sustained by the love of God.”[3] Love and peace and joy are ours to share as we welcome Holy Spirit to lead us on the path to God.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Chapter 5 Healing and wholeness. III The guide to salvation. 1-6. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
[2] This speaks volumes to those of us who question time for when we merely question the validity of time, we are thinking with Holy Spirit, and the unraveling of our ego has begun!
[3] Visit www.i-choose-love.com for 2021 daily Workbook lessons courtesy of Linda R.
Audio credit: www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 