Once again, Mari did a beautiful job of reading today’s lesson for the daily Lesson call, slowly, thoughtfully, peacefully, she exemplifies the state of mind to which we all aspire, yeah for Mari! And many thanks!
OK, before I get into my post, just wanted us all to note that Jesus has begun now to write in blank verse. Pretty cool as it is poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has a regular beat, but just doesn’t rhyme. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse, so interesting, hope you find it to be so as well.
I have read where if we read it out loud in iambic pentameter, it enhances our experience of Jesus’ words, very powerful, and yes, I have done it and it is true.
To move on…
In response to 2:4-5, Ken writes:
“Thus I am not asked not to see you as a body, which would be certainly be an unreasonable request to make of us who still identity with us. As Jesus says in the text:
“Your question should not be, “How can I see my brother without the body?” Ask only, “Do I really wish to see him sinless?: And as you ask, forget not that his sinlessness is your escape from fear. Salvation is the Holy Spirit’s goal. The means is vision (T-20.VII.9:1-5).”
Our bodies eyes still perceive others as different, but Jesus asks us to understand the inherent sameness underlying the experience of differences. In other words, we all have the same interest, just as we share the same insane belief in sin. Our common interest stems from the shared need to awaken to our inherent sinlessness as God’s one and unseparated Son. The sharing of one goal reflects the unity of Christ, the only truth.”
In response to 5:4-5, Ken writes:
“Again, we are not asked to deny what our eyes see, nor our pain and suffering. We are merely asked to look upon it. When we look upon it with the Holy Spirit we will realize the situation is not what we thought. Because pain is not the Will of God, it cannot exist. Hallucinations seem real to the deluded mind, but they have no power to make reality. The Holy Spirit’s gentle and healing vision is wonderfully described in” T-27.VIII.9, if you’re interested, BTW, take a look at it.
In this passage, we are asked to bring the effects of our thinking with the ego because we have judged them and he responses with , “My brother, holy Son of God, behold your idol dream, in which this could occur.” And Jesus states in this passage, “And you will leave the holy instant with your laughter and your brother’s joined with his.”
“The effects (Ken continues) we are asked to bring to the Holy Spirit are the “heavy consequences”, same chapter, section, 8:4, of pain and suffering we made real in our experience. When looked at through the perspective of their foolish cause – the belief in sin – they become silly nothings, deserving only of gentle laughter. The key, of course, is to look at the cause. Otherwise, following the ego’s guidance to look only to effects, the pain and suffering seem real indeed. But if the pain is real, the Love of God is not. That is why we need to go to the Holy Spirit, for only He knows that God still is Love, and sin and pain and death are not His Will.”
Just a few more excerpts:
“We are asked to realize all our problems are the same, because they are defenses against the truth of God’s unifying Love, which is beyond them all.”
Finally, in response to 8:3-9.1, Ken writes:
“This is another statement of the forgiveness process. With openness and honesty we look with Jesus at our ego thoughts, without shame or guilt, thus non-judgmentally bringing the darkness of our specialness to the light of his gentle undoing. We have repeatedly seen that Jesus cannot shine away our illusions unless we ask his help. And we certainly cannot shine them away without him. Thus is forgiveness a collaborative venture; not an occurrence between two special partners, but between us and Jesus.”
This truly is a beautiful lesson. Long, but magnificent, well, they all are, and Jesus is just so loving, gentle, patient and encouraging.
When I was meditating this morning before calling in, I just sort of heard, if you will, to stop trying so hard. I was gently reminded that the Holy Spirit or Jesus do the heavy lifting, I need but have a little willingness, that is all that is asked of all of us.
As many of us have been programmed to believe through the ego thought system, we have to work hard, study hard, etc., to get ahead, to prove our worth, our value. We work hard to keep our homes clean, menu plan, etc., oh, and for me, yard work.
It’s all upside down, I am realizing that more and more. I need do nothing but take time out of the day to remember the truth. Today’s is that “God is still Love, and this is not His Will”.
I will remember that I can bring all my secrets, “my secret sins and hidden hates” to Him for His healing.
And I can forgive, remembering salvation and forgiveness are the same.
Have a lovely day!
Love,
Gayle
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