Friday, May 29, 2015
Lesson 149: Review: “My mind holds only what I think with God.” “When I am healed I am not healed alone.” “Heaven is a decision I must make.”
The Course teaches us that our entry into heaven is certainly with the other people on the planet. A lot of religions have the practice of pitting people against each other. They put people in the position where they have to compete for God’s love. Then God’s love by that definition is finite because only a chosen few will be lucky enough to get it. This limits God entirely. The Course teaches that God’s love is infinite and ever abundant.
There is never a situation where we can’t find enough of God’s love. It is always present and always given without end to the people who venture on the earth. This is a huge difference between what the Course says versus a variety of other religions. The Course also says that all people are sinless and therefore blessed as receivers of all of the infinity of God’s favor. Therefore, no one is put n a position where they have to cut another down in order to get on top.
This would be a terrible situation where people would not want to join with others energetically because we would be afraid someone else would get the better situation in which to live. The Course teaches us that everyone is equally blessed and equally lovable. We never have to fight for the best bits. Everyone gets them all the time. This totally changes how we might feel about joining with other people because we aren’t at war with them from the get go.
Jesus teaches us here that we are all meant to get to heaven together. Jesus says that the act of joining is holy and therefore is the magical way of entry to our heavenly state of mind. We just have to stay focused on changing our minds to be open and free and letting go of judgement of others so we can join at least in energy with others. Then the joining is God’s way to remind us that the role of others in our salvation is equally important as our own.
That way when we are open to the idea that everyone is worthy of being healed equally as we are then we can not feel conflicted about connecting with others. When we are set up to compete with others we automatically resist the magical energy of joining. Jesus just wants us to let go of all these attack thoughts we have about others. When we understand that everyone is equally worthy of being healed then we aren’t resisting the importance of other people’s presence in the process of our salvation.
We are reminded that heaven is a decision we must make. Heaven is the state of our mind when we are joined with God and remembering this truth. The Course doesn’t think heaven is only in the afterlife. The Course doesn’t refer to an afterlife of any sort so I believe it is neutral about that. The beauty of the Course’s stance that heaven can happen now and always even while we still walk the earth is an enormous relief. Jesus says that our perfectly peaceful mind- which is heaven- is available now.
I appreciate the Course’s teaching that we can be empowered now. We don’t have to wait for an afterlife and we don’t have to wait for God to get around to giving us peace of mind. This thinking most certainly pushes the idea that we are reliant on God to give us heaven. This is unfortunate because lots of people believe in a God who might not get around to this. The beauty is that our minds are the way to get to peace when we are willing to choose this. We are the determiners of how we feel. Doesn’t get better than that. Our minds are at the sole discretion of our interpretation of what we see. This is a sure peace when we forgive and remember the truth has never left us.