LESSON 45
God is the Mind with which I think.
Today's idea holds the key to what your real thoughts are. They are nothing that you think you think, just as nothing that you think you see is related to vision in any way. There is no relationship between what is real and what you think is real. Nothing that you think are your real thoughts resemble your real thoughts in any respect. Nothing that you think you see bears any resemblance to what vision will show you.
You think with the Mind of God. Therefore you share your thoughts with Him, as He shares His with you. They are the same thoughts, because they are thought by the same Mind. To share is to make alike, or to make one. Nor do the thoughts you think with the Mind of God leave your mind, because thoughts do not leave their source. Therefore, your thoughts are in the Mind of God, as you are. They are in your mind as well, where He is. As you are part of His Mind, so are your thoughts part of His Mind.
Where, then, are your real thoughts? Today we will attempt to reach them. We will have to look for them in your mind, because that is where they are. They must still be there, because they cannot have left their source. What is thought by the Mind of God is eternal, being part of creation.
Have at least three practice periods today, each lasting three to five minutes. A longer time is highly recommended, but only if you find the time slipping by with little or no sense of strain. The form of practice we will use today is the most natural and easy one in the world for the trained mind, just as it seems to be the most unnatural and difficult for the untrained mind.
Our three five-minute practice periods for today will take the same general form that we used in applying yesterday's idea. We will attempt to leave the unreal and seek for the real. We will deny the world in favor of truth. We will not let the thoughts of the world hold us back. We will not let the beliefs of the world tell us that what God would have us do is impossible. Instead, we will try to recognize that only what God would have us do is possible.
We will also try to understand that only what God would have us do is what we want to do. And we will also try to remember that we cannot fail in doing what He would have us do. There is every reason to feel confident that we will succeed today. It is the Will of God.
Begin the exercises for today by repeating the idea to yourself, closing your eyes as you do so. Then spend a fairly short period in thinking a few relevant thoughts of your own, keeping the idea in mind. After you have added some four or five thoughts of your own to the idea, repeat it again and tell yourself gently:
My real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them.
Then try to go past all the unreal thoughts that cover the truth in your mind, and reach to the eternal.
Under all the senseless thoughts and mad ideas with which you have cluttered up your mind are the thoughts that you thought with God in the beginning. They are there in your mind now, completely unchanged. They will always be in your mind, exactly as they always were. Everything you have thought since then will change, but the Foundation on which it rests is wholly changeless.
It is this Foundation toward which the exercises for today are directed. Here is your mind joined with the Mind of God. Here are your thoughts one with His. For this kind of practice only one thing is necessary; approach it as you would an altar dedicated in Heaven to God the Father and to God the Son. For such is the place you are trying to reach. You will probably be unable as yet to realize how high you are trying to go. Yet even with the little understanding you have already gained, you should be able to remind yourself that this is no idle game, but an exercise in holiness and an attempt to reach the Kingdom of Heaven .
In the shorter exercise periods for today, try to remember how important it is to you to understand the holiness of the mind that thinks with God. Take a minute or two, as you repeat the idea throughout the day, to appreciate your mind's holiness. Stand aside, however briefly, from all thoughts that are unworthy of Him Whose host you are. And thank Him for the Thoughts He is thinking with you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lesson 45
“God is the Mind with which I think.”
Many times when I go into meditation, I ask Jesus to help me move through the clouds. If a particular cloud seems to attract me, I ask Jesus to help me see it differently. It happens differently in different situations. Sometimes we talk about it together and I am given a new perspective in how to view the situation. Sometimes I am given insight into what would be most helpful. Sometimes the cloud just seems to disappear. It’s just gone. And then we continue through the clouds. Jesus always leads me to deeper layers of peace.
Sometimes he gives me images where we come to a beautiful, inviting, warm pool of peace and we step in together gradually going deeper, allowing ourselves to feel the presence of God’s peace a little more and then a little more. I find that Jesus or the Holy Spirit is very gentle in leading me into the truth of my Being. Jesus knows that we have all the time we need. He asks a little willingness of me and then he takes over. I have learned to trust his lead. He brings me to deep layers of happiness. All sense of problems disappear. He knows me better than I know myself. I can trust him.
When I get involved in the world of form, I lose all sense of what is eternal, what is real. I need these times of following Jesus. Jesus leads me to the place in my mind where truth resides. It is a place past form and cannot be described. This place in my mind is always there. It never changes. I am nurtured and sustained here. I feel loved and loving in this place. This is what true sharing is. We share one mind. There are no differences. We are one Light. There is no distance between us.
By taking time to rest with Jesus, I can then return to my job in the world being refreshed and reminded of what is real. I can take the peace that I feel with me and practice receiving and extending the peace that is real. I need this practice of diving into that pool of peace often. It brings me the stability and strength. It brings me consistency. It brings me what I need. As I continue on in this “life,” I am so grateful for the help I receive each day and for the pool of peace that is always there to join with each day. There is nothing more important than this. This is real mind healing training, and I need it every day.
This lesson shakes up all of my ideas about the reality of my thoughts. It is telling me all the thoughts that I have thought were real are not real. If God is the Mind with which I think, then the thoughts of that Mind must be holy. They must see only oneness, only innocence and offer only Love. I have to admit that except for momentary flashes of holy instants, my thoughts do not fit this description.
Yet I am assured that my mind is part of God’s. So beneath the thoughts I am aware of are my holy thoughts. Just because I have covered them over with unreal thoughts doesn’t mean that they are not there. It just means I am not aware of them. Lack of awareness is not justification for guilt, although the ego will tell me it is. It just means I need to learn to be aware. That is what these lessons are here to teach me, and I am deeply grateful for them.
I want the peace of God and that peace is found in the thoughts I share with God. I want to reach those thoughts and so I am dedicated to practicing these lessons as much as I can. Each time I encounter resistance, I acknowledge it and step past it and keep on practicing. That is my job, my purpose. I am assured that it is God’s will that I receive His peace and so it is inevitable that I will succeed. Thank you God.
I continue to see the depths of my guilt. I see all the horrible things that I can imagine happening to me as another form of punishment that my ego creates to show how bad I am and how much I should be punished. But my real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them. And so I sit with this lead ball in my mind and I know that just beyond the cloud is the sunshine and all of the Love and the peace and the clarity and the benevolence of the mind of God. These lessons are very powerful. They bring up all of what’s in the way of thinking with the mind of God. Thank God for the Holy Spirit. He shows us the way. He takes our hand and walks us through the clouds. All we need do is ask.
©2003, Pathways of Light, Inc. http://pathwaysoflight.org You may freely share copies of this page with your friends, provided all copies include this notice.
