Thursday, July 9, 2015
Lesson 190: “I choose the joy of God instead of pain.”
We in our humanness do the oddest thing. We actually live little or great portions of our time under the presumption that we are in pain. One of the Course’s famous sayings is- the only problem is we forgot to laugh. That seems like a very peculiar statement. When we wrap our minds around the continuation of our suffering, when we feel like victims without end- we absolutely live in pain. The amazing thing is this level of pain is not even a neutral thing. It’s not painless.
Jesus tells us that we forgot to laugh and tells us that the problem is only when we don’t see God’s light within us and throughout our experiences. When we apply lightness, this is levity so the laugh is carried in with it. We humans on the other hand get totally weighed down by our sense of victimhood. We think pain is our only option. This can feel like a total trap. When we feel completely consumed and battered by this sense of pain we lose perspective about how easy it is to simply let this go. Because we then forget, and the pain seems to go on indefinitely. This is how pain becomes a perpetuated cycle in our minds. We start to believe in its validity more than God. We are asked to stop making the problem.
We are asked to stop making the problem. We simply need to remember that no matter how far levity seems away from our consciousness in any moment we feel vulnerable because we are pained profoundly, all we have to do is get out of the way of the miracle. The shift in consciousness out of the self inflicted pain is just a breath away. All we have to do is be willing to show up and choose it.
When we are filled with pain we need to replace it will love and joy. We must fill the void inside that currently resides in what we think is pain. Joy has a powerful essence and can energetically fill the gap in our minds that pain fills. We must replace the pain with something or darkness will rush in to fill the void. Remember to fill the mind’s empty space with light. This is the way to get out of the vicious cycle of pain. We give light the space instead.
Then the light and joy automatically makes our mind a holy place- entirely pain free- because this is God’s energy and purpose.
This lesson says, “Pain is a wrong perspective. When it is experienced in any form, it is a proof of self-deception.” This clearly states that pain is coming only from our own minds. The Course says that we are perfect and whole and and entirely worthy of a life of our happiest dreams. When we see ourselves as being in pain that is simply an error in our perception. Nothing in the world can bring pain on us. The only way to be in pain is to be affected by the world.
Jesus teaches us to stay out of our attachment to the world’s ills. Let nothing affect the perfect sense of peace and enjoyment of our time here. Remember that pain is only in the mind because the body is not real. Remember that pain is our making. We can’t always control what happens in the world and so this might sting for just a moment. But let this be a practice of watching how the world affects us and then forgive it. The reason we want to forgive the world is not to pretend that the world doesn’t affect us negatively sometimes. What we want to do is forgive it because this is the way that nothing can make us feel pained. That is the sole reason for forgiveness.