Section 7. What is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit mediates between illusions and the truth. Since He must bridge the gap between reality and dreams, perception leads to knowledge through the grace that God has given Him, to be His gift to everyone who turns to Him for truth. Across the bridge that He provides are dreams all carried to the truth, to be dispelled before the light of knowledge. There are sights and sounds forever laid aside. And where they were perceived before, forgiveness has made possible perception's tranquil end.
The goal the Holy Spirit's teaching sets is just this end of dreams. For sights and sounds must be translated from the witnesses of fear to those of love. And when this is entirely accomplished, learning has achieved the only goal it has in truth. For learning, as the Holy Spirit guides it to the outcome He perceives for it, becomes the means to go beyond itself, to be replaced by the eternal truth.
If you but knew how much your Father yearns to have you recognize your sinlessness, you would not let His Voice appeal in vain, nor turn away from His replacement for the fearful images and dreams you made. The Holy Spirit understands the means you made, by which you would attain what is forever unattainable. And if you offer them to Him, He will employ the means you made for exile to restore your mind to where it truly is at home.
From knowledge, where He has been placed by God, the Holy Spirit calls to you, to let forgiveness rest upon your dreams, and be restored to sanity and peace of mind. Without forgiveness will your dreams remain to terrify you. And the memory of all your Father's Love will not return to signify the end of dreams has come.
Accept your Father's gift. It is a Call from Love to Love, that It be but Itself. The Holy Spirit is His gift, by which the quietness of Heaven is restored to God's beloved Son. Would you refuse to take the function of completing God, when all He wills is that you be complete?
Lesson 281
I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.
Father, Your Son is perfect. When I think that I am hurt in any way, it is because I have forgotten who I am, and that I am as You created me. Your Thoughts can only bring me happiness. If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little meaningless ideas in place of where Your Thoughts belong, and where they are. I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. The Thoughts I think with You can only bless. The Thoughts I think with You alone are true.
I will not hurt myself today. For I am far beyond all pain. My Father placed me safe in Heaven, watching over me. And I would not attack the Son He loves, for what He loves is also mine to love.
The Following is Forwarded from Pathwaysoflight.org
-
-Lesson 281
"I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts."
Thought brings experience. Joining with the thoughts of the ego brings the experience of pain, loss and lack. That is because the ego thoughts stem from separation from the oneness of God, which in reality is All That is. Thoughts of separation from God bring the experience of being alone, loss, and death. These thoughts remain dreams because what God does not will could never be. But joining with the ego's thoughts brings the illusion of pain and death. This need not be.
Joining with the thoughts of the Holy Spirit can be chosen instead. When it comes down to it, this is the only choice we ever make -- the decision between thinking with the Holy Spirit or thinking with the ego. We have thought that the ego would bring a fun adventure. But behind its glossy veneer, it ultimately brings the dream experience of pain and death.
When we are ready to choose once again, the Holy Spirit is always there, waiting to help us return to the Thoughts we think with God. Our willingness grows to choose with the Holy Spirit as we see from experience that choosing with Holy Spirit brings us only happiness and lasting peace.
The Holy Spirit's gentleness becomes evident as our connection becomes stronger. Communication with the Holy Spirit grows and grows until there is no longer any attraction to the thoughts of the ego. The ego's thoughts are seen as meaningless and are gently laid aside. Why would we want to hurt ourselves? Why would we want to choose pain?
The joy of God becomes like a magnet that heals all guilt resulting from the choice to join with the ego. The desire for the "joy ride" that was not really a joy ride is over. Returning Home to God becomes the only thing we want. It is all we ask for and all that we receive. We recognize the truth the we can be hurt by nothing but our thoughts. We give up thoughts that hurt.
Though the lesson says, "I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts," the Course makes it clear that hurt can only be experienced in illusions. In truth we are one with God, in God. Nothing else exists. And so there is nothing real to harm us. But believing in the ego thought system means that I mistake illusions for reality. And so I will experience hurt as if it were real. The good news is that the illusion of harm will disappear the moment I choose to think with God.
Since God is Love and nothing else, His Thoughts are Love and nothing else. The Thoughts I think with God must also be Love and nothing else. Love can only bless and so when I think with God, I can only experience Love's blessing. With blessing comes gratitude and gratitude motivates the desire to share. And so the cycle of Love extending Love to Itself continues uninterrupted.
As I choose to join with God's Thoughts, I open my heart to experience His joy and peace. Thus I will remember I am blessed as the Son of God along with all my brothers, who are that Son. Love excludes no one and in Its inclusiveness, I remember my oneness with my Creator and all His creations. I remember Love.
©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.
-
