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Manual for Teachers, Generosity. 4-7-20

VII. Generosity
1 The term generosity has special meaning to the teacher of God. It is not the usual meaning of the word; in fact, it is a meaning that must be learned and learned very carefully. Like all the other attributes of God’s teachers this one rests ultimately on trust, for without trust no one can be generous in the true sense. To the world, generosity means “giving away” in the sense of “giving up.” To the teachers of God, it means giving away in order to keep. This has been emphasized throughout the text and the workbook, but it is perhaps more alien to the thinking of the world than many other ideas in our curriculum. Its greater strangeness lies merely in the obviousness of its reversal of the world’s thinking. In the clearest way possible, and at the simplest of levels, the word means the exact opposite to the teachers of God and to the world. 

2 The teacher of God is generous out of Self interest. This does not refer, however, to the self of which the world speaks. The teacher of God does not want anything he cannot give away, because he realizes it would be valueless to him by definition. What would he want it for? He could only lose because of it. He could not gain. Therefore he does not seek what only he could keep, because that is a guarantee of loss. He does not want to suffer. Why should he ensure himself pain? But he does want to keep for himself all things that are of God, and therefore for His Son. These are the things that belong to him. These he can give away in true generosity, protecting them forever for himself.

The teacher of God does not want anything he cannot give away, because he realizes it would be valueless to him by definition.

Most of us have spent our entire lives seeking and protecting that which is ours alone. We take care of the body, save money, buy things, preserve special relationships. None of this has any value at all and the concern for it will bring us suffering. I’ve done it both ways, valuing the valueless and valuing only what is real. More and more, I experience the truth in what Jesus tells us here.

When I was striving to get the things the world said were of great value, I was always anxious. It was so ‘normal’ for me that I didn’t realize it was happening unless there was an overt threat to something I valued and then the anxiety became stronger. I didn’t realize I was living like that until I stopped. Now, sometimes I just laugh out loud to realize how peaceful it is in my mind.

It takes trust to stop striving for the valueless. We are so very certain that our happiness depends on having the symbols of safety that we find it hard to look away from them. My experience has been that once I let go of striving, everything I needed came to me, and what I didn’t need I didn’t miss. I’m deeply grateful for this new way to live.

In what ways do I generously give? I forgive. I am kind. I am patient. I am loving. Usually these are easy choices and the value is obvious. Sometimes it seems to go against all reason as the world sees it, and I have to ask for help to change my mind. Either way these are true gifts, of great value because they are of God, and as I give them, I gain them. My generosity is to Self.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Manual for Teachers, Defenselessness. 4-2-20

VI. Defenselessness
1 God’s teachers have learned how to be simple. They have no dreams that need defense against the truth. They do not try to make themselves. Their joy comes from their understanding Who created them. And does what God created need defense? No one can become an advanced teacher of God until he fully understands that defenses are but foolish guardians of mad illusions. The more grotesque the dream, the fiercer and more powerful its defenses seem to be. Yet when the teacher of God finally agrees to look past them, he finds that nothing was there. Slowly at first he lets himself be undeceived. But he learns faster as his trust increases. It is not danger that comes when defenses are laid down. It is safety. It is peace. It is joy. And it is God.

I am being told that a teacher of God does not defend his illusions, but rather looks past them to the truth. I have often done this with others. I see their behavior, recognize it is not who they are and that it doesn’t ultimately matter. It certainly doesn’t make them guilty or prove they are not what God created.

I used to find this harder to do with myself. I tended to judge my own behavior and to believe it defined me. I was very vigilant for this and asked for correction when I saw it. I asked Holy Spirit to speak to me about this, which He did. This is the message He gave me and this message helped me to see differently.

Holy Spirit: You have been doing this, Myron. You could not see your brother as innocent if you could not see yourself in that way. Just as you sometimes judge others, you still sometimes judge yourself. Do not overlook your healing simply because you notice that there is still healing to be done.

Continue to ask what it is you are. This is helpful, because you are becoming willing to know. Ask what you are through asking what your brother is. When you see a brother and notice his behavior and notice that you want to judge it, ask instead, “What is my brother?” If you do this you will be putting aside what you think you know so that you can be taught. When you know what your brother is, you will know what you are.

Since that time, I have stopped trying to make myself and I have stopped trying to defend what I made. I belong to God and I am grateful to know that. Life is so much easier now and my everyday experience is so very different. I never realized before how much distress I felt even when nothing was really happening to cause it. It seems I had to be free of it in order to realize how much I had been suffering all along.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Every Relationship Is a Relationship with God

I, and all of us here, seek out special people and special things to save us from our guilt and fear and loneliness. We often call it love when we find someone special but really we are more often using those people to give us what we think we don’t have and using people is not the same as loving them. This is why we have such a hard time with relationships. Our view of them is so screwed up.

Through the study and practice of ACIM, we are given the opportunity to have these special relationships healed and transformed into holy relationships. We do this as we notice the strange and awful uses we put to them and give that to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to heal our mind. What happens in my experience is that we start to become the person we sought through the relationship, and instead of being in relationship to get something, we begin to enjoy the relationship for what we bring to the relationship and share with the other person.

In this same process, we learn to see others as the perfect creations of a perfect God. We see them as the Sons of God that they are and as this occurs we begin to see ourselves in this way. When this happens we no longer need one or the other to be our special love object. We love the one before us and when that one is no longer before us we love ourselves. Then we love the next one who is before us. We don’t love one more than the other. We simply love because we are love and so are they and there is no difference, really.

What has happened is that we have shifted our awareness from individuality to wholeness, or oneness. We see ourselves as part of this whole and others as parts of that whole. We come to see ourselves and others as part of God and so every relationship will be a relationship with God. I expect that the memory of our confusing and difficult relationships will simply fade away because they will have no purpose. And who would desire them anyway when they can have a perfect relationship with everyone, and that relationship will be a reflection of their relationship with God.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

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