Thursday, May 21, 2015
Lesson 141: Review: “My mind holds only what I think with God.” “Forgiveness is the key to happiness.” “Forgiveness offers everything I want.”
We receive the training in the Course to choose only the thoughts that we have with God. We are prone to think the broad span of possible thoughts. We have all kinds of opinions and judgements. What the Course asks us to do is to be vigilant with our minds. Watch our thinking all day every day. Let no moment pass when we are not noticing what passes through our minds.
If our thinking is full of attack and conflict, this is never the way to peace. This is is just one stop on the cycle of violence and it will go on unbounded while we allow that kind of response to what we see. We learn from the Course that our only important job is to notice what transpires in our minds. Make sure that we are choosing our thoughts and they don’t just carry on unchecked.
We need to be willing to take responsibility for choosing what can be chosen. We can’t choose our purpose because this is always of God’s and never changes. However, we can and must choose our thinking and the energy with which we approach the world and our human experience here.
We are asked to understand that forgiveness is not just our purpose, it is the sole factor that creates our happiness. When we forget to forgive, our days are spent being judgmental and attached to the way we think things should be. When we aren’t willing to forgive, everything will come out backwards because we are not aligned with God. Thus, a smooth flow of light and a joyful experience is far from our reach because we are busy making all we see wrong.
This is why forgiveness is the perfect and essential step we must apply to every circumstance we find the fortune of being in. When we are unforgiving, we get angry because the miracle is yet to come. We get anxious that things won’t work out our way. But what the Course teaches us is that when there is a call for love in the world, this is our cue to bring the miracle with us. Then we can have perfect peace because we are willing to bring forgiveness and then embody the miracle.
Forgiveness is very commonly sold short in our ego’s perception. The world looks for miracles in the form of cash or some wanted expensive clothing. We get a little down on the idea that a miracle is just a feeling- a shift in consciousness. This seems utterly inconsequential. But think about it really. When we have great worldly gifts, sometimes if we don’t also have the love of God, these things can seem unsatisfying and minor in the grand scheme of things. The ego is quick to complain that things are not yet “good enough.”
What the miracle offers us as a shift in consciousness is the energy that makes perfect peace and happiness. Then our desire for this thing if have God love first or along with it, then we can be truly happy. And if we lose that thing at some point, when our hearts are connected to the miracle and forgiveness then we feel perfectly fine and still grateful. No matter how much “loss” we might encounter in the world when we can forgive still then our hearts are always and still free. This is the way to be happy no matter what.