Morning!
I got up at 5 AM as B. and I had to get Gracie to the groomer by 7 AM. I wanted to assure she had time to play a little and, also, allow her anti-inflammatory to kick in before standing for a while on the table to be groomed. She has knee issues as well as arthritis in her right “elbow”. To enable her to walk, this medicine appears, for now, to be the only remedy for her, otherwise, she limps so badly, walking is nearly impossible. We decided to explore some holistic modalities this morning just to ascertain if there’s anything else available, but I digress. Maybe my point is that Gracie is special to me and I find it difficult/challenging to place my relationship with our beloved dog on the altar for transformation into holiness, to be totally honest with myself and you.
I love these review lessons. Want to share a few of Ken’s and my own thoughts on both, here gores with review of Lesson 69:
Because we want to see, “we are no longer willing to be safe and miserable. We want the vision that embraces all Sons as the same, the precursor to remembering our Oneness as Christ. In this vision, born – born of letting go of grievances – we find our true happiness.”
“We need to understand that the ego’s grievances hold the light of peace and joy from ourselves, leaving us in the darkness of misery and pain. Only by realizing the connection between our decision to attack and our suffering will we be motivated to say and mean: “”I have no need of this.””
Hmm…I am attached to the concept I have of Gayle. No doubt about it. Either I feel “superior to” or “less than” others at any given time, depending on the circumstances. If I am feeling insecure, I can easily feel superior to those I believe are ignorant, for example, those who blindly follow any political leader as though they’ve drunk the Kool-Aide of poisonous thoughts toward other groups, never challenging those beliefs. Yet, the other party or group does the same thing, I see that more clearly now.
The political arena is but one area where one’s feelings, my feelings, of judgment can easily prevail. I am more enlightened, I am willing to change or question my beliefs around political issues, I am able to be objective, whatever, it is indeed a very slippery slope without my realizing I am pointing fingers at “them” and not truly looking at my own darkness.
I do this all the time in every facet of my life, making comparisons to ascertain if I am up or down the proverbial scale of judgment, superior or inferior, then trying to even the playing field, so silly and SUCH a WASTE of TIME and ENERGY.
Lesson 70’s review per Ken and my own thoughts:
In response to the first paragraph of this review, Ken writes: “This is what people want to do with God, Jesus, and ACIM: see them outside themselves. We must realize that salvation rests only within, in the power of the mind to choose Jesus as our teacher and not the ego. It is not found in Jesus, but in our minds’ capacity to choose him. As we discussed earlier, Jesus has always asked us to come to him outside the dream. Yet we have continually strived to bring him into the dream, so that our ego identity will remain secure and intact. We need to take Jesus’ hand and walk through the dream (the clouds), that we may walk with him out of it.
My goal with the review of these two lessons is to take more time today in all my sense of getting things done to be still and ask for help, to take Jesus’ hand, to resign now as my own teacher because I have been badly taught. Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit are not outside of me, they are in my mind outside of time and space and when I become quiet, I connect with Jesus or the Holy Spirit who represent my rightmindedness, my power to choose to be peaceful no matter what.
Ken’s closing comments which I too will close with are:
“In other words, it is our choice whether the world will take our peace from us, for in and of itself, being an illusion, it can do nothing. We alone have power, which we then project onto the world. It is the mind that chooses against Jesus’ peace, and he asks us not to give in to this temptation because it will not make us happy. He directs our sight inward and away from the world; the shift in purpose – from guilt to salvation – reflects our decision to remember our Source and our Self.”
Have a lovely day!
Love,
Gayle
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