You Will Remember

I give you this humble bit of counseling when it comes to all of your relationships in this world, whether they were founded on love or hate. Why don’t you stop worrying about whether or not people love you and just love them? Then it doesn’t matter what they think about you. You can just be love. It’s so simple! And guess what? It will ultimately determine how you feel about yourself!

Nobody knows how to forgive at first. It takes time to learn. People don’t know what they’re doing to their own minds when they judge and condemn others. Even Jesus’s own disciples, didn’t really understand it at first. Sure, they thought they knew a lot at the time. Everybody does. Yet as Jesus says in the Course, in regard to the derivative teachings of the New Testament, some of which originated with and were handed down by certain disciples:

"As you read the teachings of the Apostles, remember that I told them myself that there was much they would understand later, because they were not wholly ready to follow me at the time."

Some people may not want to know it today, but all of the disciples had at least twenty more lifetimes to go through and more lessons to learn before they attained their enlightenment. They certainly did learn a lot from Jesus in that lifetime though, because they couldn’t help but be struck by Jesus’ belief in the one Great Commandment  of the God of Israel: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

Jesus had the kind of humility that said, “God, I just want you.” How many people are ready to say that and mean it? Are you ready to go for the end-game?

Your special loves are simply idols in which you seek to get what you feel is lacking in yourself. Romance is a vain attempt to fill an imagined emptiness—a hole that doesn’t really exist, but that you experience as a result of the separation. That sense of lack can really only be healed by the Atonement and salvation, leading you to the wholeness of your oneness with God.

Home is where the heart is. If your heart is with God, then you’re already home. Renounce the world, not physically but mentally. This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. That attitude will make it ten times easier for you to forgive. The next time it hits the fan my friend, remember God and forgive—for if you forgive then you will remember God.

As you become accomplished in the application of forgiveness, your pain and your discomfort will lessen and sometimes disappear. Notice I didn’t say that the apparent cause of the pain and discomfort would disappear. It would be theoretically possible for a master to die of cancer, or be murdered like Jesus, and not feel the pain associated with such events. If your pain is gone, and your suffering along with it, then does it really matter if the illusory cause of the pain still appears to be there? Which is just one more reason why you should never go by appearances. 

Whatever appears to be causing your pain, whether it’s a circumstance or a relationship or both, may or may not disappear when you practice forgiveness. The ego’s script doesn’t always appear to change when you want it to. But it is possible to end all the suffering that’s called for by the ego’s script and have peace instead of fear. That’s the Holy Spirit’s script.

Another thing you should remember is not to be distracted by teachings that may serve others and help them feel temporarily better, but are not part of the path you’ve chosen.

There will be those who tell you that when you have a problem, person or object to deal with you can say, “I am that,” and it will disappear. Becoming one with something in your projection only makes it real for you, and will not undo the guilt in your mind that you can’t see. Only true forgiveness can do that.

There will also be those who tell you that observing and being aware of your emotions will free you from your compulsions. Yet even though you’ve seen for yourself that observing your feelings can lessen their impact, it is still not the same as forgiving them. Only the true forgiveness of your relationships, and thus the healing of the unconscious guilt in your mind, can really free you from your compulsions or anything else.

Finally, you may hear from those seeking balance: the balancing of body, mind and spirit, or balancing dual forces like yin and yang, or balancing “the force” itself. Balancing illusions is not forgiving them.

Concentrate on the path that was meant for you. Others will follow that same path during different lifetimes. Don’t forget, the Course is a very new thing. Rock’n’roll is twenty years older than the Course! Be grateful you got to play both, and give this new spiritual path a chance to find those it’s meant to find.