I will not value what is valueless.
Sometimes in teaching there is benefit, particularly after you have gone through what seems theoretical and far from what the student has already learned, to bring him back to practical concerns. This we will do today. We will not speak of lofty, world-encompassing ideas, but dwell instead on benefits to you.
You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. This course does not attempt to take from you the little that you have. It does not try to substitute utopian ideas for satisfactions which the world contains. There are no satisfactions in the world.
Today we list the real criteria by which to test all things you think you want. Unless they meet these sound requirements, they are not worth desiring at all, for they can but replace what offers more. The laws that govern choice you cannot make, no more than you can make alternatives from which to choose. The choosing you can do; indeed, you must. But it is wise to learn the laws you set in motion when you choose, and what alternatives you choose between.
We have already stressed there are but two, however many there appear to be. The range is set, and this we cannot change. It would be most ungenerous to you to let alternatives be limitless, and thus delay your final choice until you had considered all of them in time; and not been brought so clearly to the place where there is but one choice that must be made.
Another kindly and related law is that there is no compromise in what your choice must bring. It cannot give you just a little, for there is no in between. Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. Therefore, if you learn the tests by which you can distinguish everything from nothing, you will make the better choice.
Another kindly and related law is that there is no compromise in what your choice must bring. It cannot give you just a little, for there is no in between. Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. Therefore, if you learn the tests by which you can distinguish everything from nothing, you will make the better choice.
First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is valueless. A temporary value is without all value. Time can never take away a value that is real. What fades and dies was never there, and makes no offering to him who chooses it. He is deceived by nothing in a form he thinks he likes.
Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will have nothing left. This is because, when you deny his right to everything, you have denied your own. You therefore will not recognize the things you really have, denying they are there. Who seeks to take away has been deceived by the illusion loss can offer gain. Yet loss must offer loss, and nothing more.
Your next consideration is the one on which the others rest. Why is the choice you make of value to you? What attracts your mind to it? What purpose does it serve? Here it is easiest of all to be deceived. For what the ego wants it fails to recognize. It does not even tell the truth as it perceives it, for it needs to keep the halo which it uses to protect its goals from tarnish and from rust, that you may see how "innocent" it is.
Your next consideration is the one on which the others rest. Why is the choice you make of value to you? What attracts your mind to it? What purpose does it serve? Here it is easiest of all to be deceived. For what the ego wants it fails to recognize. It does not even tell the truth as it perceives it, for it needs to keep the halo which it uses to protect its goals from tarnish and from rust, that you may see how "innocent" it is.
Yet is its camouflage a thin veneer, which could deceive but those who are content to be deceived. Its goals are obvious to anyone who cares to look for them. Here is deception doubled, for the one who is deceived will not perceive that he has merely failed to gain. He will believe that he has served the ego's hidden goals.
Yet though he tries to keep its halo clear within his vision, still must he perceive its tarnished edges and its rusted core. His ineffectual mistakes appear as sins to him, because he looks upon the tarnish as his own; the rust a sign of deep unworthiness within himself. He who would still preserve the ego's goals and serve them as his own makes no mistakes, according to the dictates of his guide. This guidance teaches it is error to believe that sins are but mistakes, for who would suffer for his sins if this were so?
And so we come to the criterion for choice that is the hardest to believe, because its obviousness is overlaid with many levels of obscurity. If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the ego's goals to come between the real alternatives. And thus you do not realize there are but two, and the alternative you think you chose seems fearful, and too dangerous to be the nothingness it actually is.
All things are valuable or valueless, worthy or not of being sought at all, entirely desirable or not worth the slightest effort to obtain. Choosing is easy just because of this. Complexity is nothing but a screen of smoke, which hides the very simple fact that no decision can be difficult. What is the gain to you in learning this? It is far more than merely letting you make choices easily and without pain.
Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own. We will attempt to reach this state today, with self-deception laid aside, and with an honest willingness to value but the truly valuable and the real. Our two extended practice periods of fifteen minutes each begin with this:
I will not value what is valueless, and only what has value do I seek, for only that do I desire to find.
And then receive what waits for everyone who reaches, unencumbered, to the gate of Heaven, which swings open as he comes. Should you begin to let yourself collect some needless burdens, or believe you see some difficult decisions facing you, be quick to answer with this simple thought:
I will not value what is valueless, for what is valuable belongs to me.
The Following is Forwarded from Pathwaysoflight.org
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Lesson 133
"I will not value what is valueless."
Today's lesson lies at the core of awakening. I will not value what is valueless. Jesus has told us many times that we seek for what we value and we value it because we think it will give us something we want. As long as I value a world of separation, I will seek for it and I will find it.
But now I am learning to value what is truly important. I am learning to value the truth. In truth I am still as God created me. I am love and nothing else, and that is the truth about everyone.
As I practice every day opening more and more to the truth, its value grows in my mind. The Love that I am is found and felt. The Love that everyone is is found and felt. There is no complication here. Life as I know it becomes simple and clear of valueless distractions. There is only one goal, and that is to return to the truth and let go of the valueless.
This is actually very practical. It is not just heady concepts. It brings everything and every experience down to very simple terms. What is real and what is not real? I can let go of what is not real because it doesn't matter. I can open more and more to what is real because that is all that does matter.
In today's lesson, the first test Jesus talks about is asking of everything, "Is this eternal? Is this a thing that lasts forever?" This is how I can tell if what I am choosing is valuable or valueless, worth everything or nothing at all. As I apply the practice of today's lesson to each situation I encounter, it takes me a long way towards recognizing what is real and what is not real; what is valuable and what is not worth seeking. This is a very important step on my journey of return to the changeless truth.
I am so grateful for these daily practice lessons. I am gradually learning to generalize it to every part of my life. Learning to let go of valuing what is valueless opens my mind to receive what is really true. The whole Sonship is still as God created it. God's extensions are still safe in the Mind of God. No one has left Heaven. Nothing has changed. The truth is true and nothing else is true. "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God." (Intro.) Today I practice applying this to every situation I encounter in my daily life.
This lesson seems to be working mainly at the metaphysical level. It says that if what you gain another loses, then what you gained is valueless. In the physical world, for anything that you take, the one that you took it from no longer has it. You may have offered money in exchange, but that thing is no longer in their possession. The very point of this lesson is that this exchange is truly valueless. It really follows from yesterday's lesson. Nothing in this world is real and therefore nothing in this world has value.
If we still maintain identification with the ego, this can seem very frustrating. If nothing here is of value, what's the use, the ego would say. Here it is important that we look at the third test given in this lesson. We need to ask, "What is this for? What is its purpose?" It is its purpose that gives it its meaning. If its purpose is to maintain the idea of separation and specialness, then it is really an empty meaning, for separation and specialness cannot be real. But if its purpose is to facilitate forgiveness and the extension of Love, then its value is mighty, for it is leading us to the gate of Heaven.
To clearly discern the purpose of anything in any moment, we need to ask the guidance of Holy Spirit. On our own, which means in our identification with the ego, it is impossible for us to truly recognize the purpose of anything. But the Holy Spirit in our mind is there to help us in every moment with every decision. An important step to opening up to His guidance is learning to recognize the valuable and the valueless. If I am valuing an ego based idea or thing, I will not have an open mind and will be unwilling to receive the Holy Spirit's guidance.
Today's lesson offers us a means to practice recognizing the valuable and the valueless. The tests offered in this lesson can help me loosen my grip on the valueless by helping me to recognize it for what it is. This is how I can come to the Holy Spirit with empty hands and an open mind to receive His gifts of the truly valuable.
Today i will practice asking in each decision, "Is this eternal? Does this involve loss of any kind? What is its purpose? Is there any guilt associated with this?" Thank you Jesus for this mighty tool to help me on my journey of awakening.
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