Morning!
I found several passages from Ken Wapnick’s Journey through the WB to be helpful today, I hope they are for you too.
Here we go, I will start with his thoughts following paragraph six (6):
“The problem as we have seen many times, is our arrogance in thinking we know the problem and therefore know which question to ask, always some version of:
How should I behave?
What should I say?
What is the answer to my problem?
Where should I move?
What job should I take?
What relationship should I be involved with?
All these are but pseudo-questions, designed to distract us from realizing the true problem of separation, the focus of Lessons 79 and 80.
In truth we are not asking for anything. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us realize we made a mistake, and can now make the correct choice. That is the meaning of Jesus saying early in the text that “the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything” (T-3.V.6:3). Our true prayer is that we accept the miracle or correction that is already present within us. This means we have to take our eyes off the distractions – perceived problems, either in my body or another’s – bringing them to our minds so we can understand the problem is not something outside, but a mistaken choice within. Again, this correction is the essence of the miracle, and asking for it is the only real request we can make, the answer to which is found in the holy instant…”. He quoted at this conjuncture from T.27.IV.7.
The last sentence of the paragraph in that paragraph is “In the holy instant, you can bring the question to the answer, and receive the answer that was made for you.”
Following paragraph seven (7), sentences five through six (5-6), Ken writes:
“This is an extremely important point – the big shift. Heretofore we have relied on ourselves, or a projected image of ourselves we call Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or God – some magical figure who will undo our pain and distress without our having to change our minds. The pleas to these magical savior figures was really a prayer for magic, not true healing. Jesus is now assuming we are no longer telling ourselves what the problem is, and therefore not asking the image we made of him to solve the problem for us. Instead, we go to the source of the problem, the mind’s decision to be on its own and be right, rather than happy. Truly asking Jesus or the Holy Spirit for help says we do not want to be on our own anymore, ensuring that the miracle will once again be ours. A special message to Helen addresses this very issue, Jesus cautioning his scribe against trying to define the problem that needed answering:
““Any specific question involves a large number of assumptions which inevitably limit the answer. A specific question is actually a decision about the kind of answer that is acceptable. The purpose of words is to limit, and by limiting, to make a vast area of experience more manageable. But that means manageable by you.”” (p. 445 in Absence from Felicity).
The point lies in our recognizing that all problems are the same, and therefore asking for the miracle – asking ourselves to choose it – is the only meaningful thing to do. Only the miracle allows true and unlimited correction of the separation to occur.”
From “I am under no laws but God’s” follows this lesson where Jesus states our claim to miracles “was ensured in your (our) creation, and guaranteed by the laws of God.” Two paragraphs later, fourth paragraph (4), Jesus states, “Miracles do not obey the laws of this world. They merely follow from the laws of God.”
This is long enough.
Have a miracles’ choosing day today!
Love,
Gayle
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