UNIT 21
The Heavenly Realm
I teach the way of forgiveness, because it alone undoes the lock of time upon the wound. When there is no time, there is no wound.
Time makes the wound seem real. It makes all the changes that happen in your life seem real. Yet none of these are ultimately real. They are all at best temporary and insubstantial.
If you could be without time for a single instant, you would understand that nothing you have said or done means anything. In that moment, there is nothing to own: no past, no future, no identity.
In that moment you experience heaven. But it is hard for you to stay there. You revert back to your old patterns.
You cannot remain in the heavenly realm, because heaven does not support your ego, your power struggles, your lessons, or even your forgiveness process. There is no need for forgiveness in heaven, because no one in heaven is guilty
There is no drama there and you miss the drama. You miss the soap opera of crime and punishment, for it keeps you entertained.
In heaven no one needs to be fixed. So what will you think and what can you do if there is no need to fix your brother or yourself?
It becomes a bit boring, does it not?
Journaling Questions
Do you understand that it is exactly when life seems boring that you need to pay attention?
Can you see how not being distracted offers you the opportunity to step beyond the drama?
Crossing the Threshold
You think you get to go to heaven by “being good.” Yet no two of you can agree on what it means to be “good.” So it is hard to find the path.
Some of you believe that you just need to follow me and you will cross the threshold, but that is not true. I can take you to the threshold, but you must cross it by yourself.
You continue to think that I died for your sins, but “Why would I do this?” I did not commit your sins and I am already free of guilt, so why would I shoulder a burden that you must learn to lay down?
If you believe that your salvation depends on me, then you are in a bind. What happens if I do not deliver?
Do not give away your power to atone. Do not give it to me or to any of your brothers and sisters.
Be brave. Face your fears. Walk through the fire to the other side.
Once you cross the threshold, you will realize that my help was not necessary and could actually hold you back.
Listen to my teaching and practice forgiveness of yourself and others. This is how you relinquish guilt and realize your innocence and that of all your brothers and sisters.
Be willing to look at the things you would condemn. That is the fastest way to dismantle your guilt. And until you relinquish guilt, it will be running your life.
You have only one person to forgive in your journey and that is yourself. You are the judge. You are the jury. And you are the prisoner. An unholy trinity, to be sure!
The only way out of this labyrinth of fear and shame is to practice forgiveness. This practice will take you to the threshold.
When you cease to impose your meanings on what you see, your spiritual eyes will open, and you will see a world free of judgment and shining in its endless beauty.
There you will look down on earth, as I do now, and you will say with compassion: “There I walked too, when I was afraid and learned to face my fears. It is a holy place, a place where every enemy became a friend, and every friend a brother and a teacher.
There the dream of death and separation came to an end. I feel privileged to have taken the journey and happy to be home at last.”
Journaling Questions
Do you understand that being dependent on me or anyone else for your salvation holds you back from crossing the threshold?
Do you see how you alone are the judge and the jury and that there is only one person to forgive right now and that is you?
The Death of the Ego
Thoughts that separate obscure your awareness of the unity. Be vigilant for these thoughts or you will be drawn into the drama.
Ideas can become opponents just as easily as the people who think them. You think that you can attack people’s ideas without attacking them, but there aren’t many people who won’t feel personally attacked when you attack their ideas.
To communicate with people, acknowledge their ideas. Let them know that you hear them, even if you do not agree with them
Do not attempt to overcome differences. Just accept them.
The attempt to overcome differences invariably fails. That is because differences are healthy. As long as they are respected, they do not interfere with the potential for cordial relations between people.
Acceptance leads to respect. And respect is necessary if people are to address their common and complimentary needs.
To make peace, accept differences and find common ground.
Recognize how much you try to change others to fit your image of how you think they should be. Be aware of how others try to change you. Feel the constant push and the pull. That is the world of the ego.
The human ego is insecure. It has no native confidence in itself and therefore no generosity of spirit.
It hates everything because it hates itself. All its pride is but a show. Take ego apart and you find an open wound.
Ego is the part of you that doesn’t know that you are loved.
It can’t give love, because it doesn’t know how to receive it.
How do the unloved and unlovable find love? That is the cry of every soul in exile in the world.
Ego must be taught that it has love. This is a threatening proposition, for as soon as ego recognizes it has love, it ceases to be ego.
Ego must die as ego to be reborn as love.
Now you know why most people resist enlightenment. The idea of waking up is scary to anyone who is still asleep.
Your fear of death and your fear of waking up are the same fear.
The unlimited, universal self is not born until the limited, temporal self dies.
So death will come, one way or the other. Either you will die, or you will wake up, which is a different kind of dying.
Once you are awake, dying is no big deal. You are not afraid to surrender the past and enter the unknown.
In fact, dying is one of the best ways to learn to be present. When you are dying, you are aware of things in a way you never were before. You notice every breath, every nuance, every flower, every word or gesture of love.
Dying is like a crash course in waking up. Now that doesn’t mean that everyone who dies wakes up. It just means they’ve taken the course.
Those who graduate from the course are content to be wherever they are sent. If that means being somewhere in a body, so be it. If that means assisting someone in a body, that’s fine too. It doesn’t really matter where you go because you have nothing to prove. You are there simply to be helpful.
Disengaging from meaningless identity is an inevitable aspect of the path back home. The less you have to protect or defend, the more help that you can be.
Journaling Questions
Do you have a fear of death?
Do you have a fear of losing your mind and your ability to control what happens?
Do you have a fear of entering the unknown?
UNIT 22
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is a gift that was given to you for all time. It is not something that comes to you or can be taken away. It is there always, and it is the only gift you will ever need to move beyond the experience of pain and suffering.
Forgiveness works in this world, but it is not of the world. It is a gift of Spirit and cannot forget its origin. No matter how many times the gift is received and given, it can never be exhausted. For every sin or perception of sin, forgiveness waits with the answer.
Forgiveness is the only gift that asks nothing in return. And so it is the only gift that can be given and received without guilt.
The all-encompassing love that lies beyond the door that forgiveness opens is incomprehensible to you now. Therefore, talking about it is not helpful.
Be as you are. Stand before the door and knock. Be patient and committed. Be willing to look at every painful and unhelpful thought and let it go. Know that every thought releases or imprisons you and choose to be released.
When peace comes to your heart, the door will open. The veil will be lifted. Until then, dwell where you are, in the heart of your practice.
Journaling Questions
How has the gift of forgiveness manifested in your life?
Have you taken all of your brothers and sisters off the hook?
Have you taken yourself oof the cross?
The Gift
God gave you one gift for your journey and one gift alone. He said: “My son, remember, you can change your mind at any time.”
He did not say: “Do not leave, son.” He just said: “Remember, you can change your mind at any time.”
You can change your mind about every painful and unforgiving thought that you think. You can question each unhappy thought and think another thought that releases you and brings joy into your heart.
God did not say: “I will not let My son make mistakes.” He said: “I trust in your return and I give you a gift to see you home.”
All your mistakes mean nothing to God. To Him, you are but a child exploring your world and, through trial and error, learning the rules that govern it.
God did not make those rules. You made them when you made this playground. You forgot only one thing, and God gave that to you with his blessing. He said: “No matter where your journey takes you, son, remember, you can change your mind at any time.”
With a single loving thought, he made temporal what you would make final. He made unreal what you would make real. You created the ashes of death. He created the wings of the phoenix.
Like Prometheus, you tried to steal the fire of the gods. But God did not punish you for this. He did not chain you to the rock where you would live throughout all eternity with vultures as your only playmates.
He said: “Take the sacred fire, son, but be careful, and remember you can change your mind at any time.”
Like Adam and Eve, you stood in the garden and became curious about good and evil. When He knew your desire for knowledge would not pass, He sent the sacred snake to you with an apple and invited you to eat.
He did not trick you into sin and then banish you from the garden. He just said: “Be careful, my son, when you eat this fruit, your perception of the world will change. This garden may suddenly seem a dry desert where nothing grows at all.
Your body with all its innocent grace may play host to countless aches and pains. Your mind, which now shares my every thought, may think thoughts opposed to mine. Duality and feelings of separation may enter your consciousness and experience.
All this and more may arise from this tiny bite you would eat, but remember, son, you can change your mind at any time.”
God does not condemn you for your mistakes. Indeed, He is not concerned about them. He knows the child will burn itself with an open flame. He knows the apple will give indigestion. But He also knows the child will learn to keep the flame carefully and use it to warm himself and light his way.
He knows that your decision “to know” will bring you into dangerous situations when you think your happiness depends on the way others treat you. He knows that there will be times in which you blame Him for all of your troubles and forget that you were the one who chose to leave home.
But all this does not concern Him, because, before you left hell-bent into your journey of separation, He told you “Just a minute, son. It may be a long time before we meet again. Won’t you please accept this simple gift from me, and keep it wherever you go in remembrance of me?”
Most of you do not remember answering “Yes, Father.” But I assure you that you did. And so the voice of God went with you into exile. And it is still with you now.
This is not my gift, but God’s gift to you. I am simply reminding you of what you already know.
God gave you the gift of forgiveness. This gift travels with you wherever you go. When you do not trust it, he sends his son to you to remind you of the gift.
Many beings of light have come as the Christ, bringing that simple reminder. All have the same purpose, for Christ is not a person, but a keeper of the flame, a giver of the gift, and a messenger of love.
Light comes from him, because he has remembered light in the darkness of the world. Love comes from him, because he has received the gift and learned to offer it unconditionally to all who would receive it.
Journaling Questions
If the Gift of Forgiveness comes from God, then the only question is “Do you accept the gift or not?
And if you accept the gift, do you share it with others?
My Promise
I support you, dear brother and sister, in your freedom to choose, even when you make a fearful choice. I trust you to learn from your mistakes and find your way into truth.
I trust God’s plan for your awakening. And I know that you can never make a mistake that will cut you off from God’s love or from mine.
My understanding, my blessing, my love will always be with you. When you call for help, I will answer.
When you cross the threshold, I will welcome you with open arms.