I’ve been thinking about guilt all week because of my workshop today on Healing Religious Guilt. One thing I’ve seen for sure from many folks in my life is that it seems impossible to be a parent and not have some guilt.
That’s why I call the prayer at the end of Chapter 5 in the text of A Course in Miracles the parents prayer. I’m not a parent, but I used to quote it to myself almost daily:
“I must have decided wrongly because I am not at peace. I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise. I want to decide otherwise because I want to be at peace. I do not feel guilty because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let him. I choose to let him by allowing him to decide for God, for me.”
The first sentence is the doorway:
“I must have decided wrongly because I am not at peace.”
Whenever I’m not at peace, this is true. I made a decision somewhere. I decided to judge. I decided to take offense. I decided to interpret something the worst possible way. I decided to assume the past is happening again.
These were all active choices. Not always conscious. Yet active.
If we’re not at peace, we decided not to be.
That’s hard to take in at first. Yet it’s actually liberation. Because if I made the decision, I can make a different one.
Just as actively as I decided to judge, I can decide to release the judgment.
Just as actively as I decided to take offense, I can decide to remember the truth about the other person and about myself.
The Higher Holy Spirit Self does the heavy lifting. I just have to be willing.
When I work this prayer in my own mind, I change the pronouns. I say:
“Higher Holy Spirit Self, undo all the consequences of any fearful choice I’ve ever made. Any unloving choice I’ve ever made. Undo them all, in all directions of time and space. I’m willing.”
And then I trust the undoing is occurring, even when I can’t see it yet.
I place my trust in Love.
Here’s the truth: we’re not stuck. We were never stuck. We’re always one decision away from Peace. We let go of the block to Peace and discover Peace was always there.
The block to Peace is a story we made up.
It’s a story of sin, of lack and attack.
The story has no power unless we invest in it.
That’s the good news. We can divest ourselves of the stories.
The Higher Holy Spirit Self knows how, all we have to do is be willing.
Quantum Counseling Training Intensive in July – Registration is OPEN! If you have an interest in training to be a spiritual counselor or simply doing some dealing work to open up your intuition and improve your relationships, I’ve been offering a professional training intensive for the last 15 years. This year we’re doing the training intensive – open to anyone whether or not you have any interest in becoming a counselor – the Quantum Counseling Training Intensive in Asheville NC Sunday, July 12th to Saturday, July 18th with Jennifer Hadley and Mark Anthony Lord, as well as Guest Teachers Alan Cohen, Jon Mundy and Lisa Natoli joining us online – we’re finalizing the Resort Hotel details, and if you’d like to be notified as soon as registration opens so you can qualify for early-bird bonuses please click here now.
It’s Not Too Late to Register Our Change Your Mind About the World program is built on this very principle – becoming peace activists by changing our mind about what we see. We kicked off yesterday, and the first session is in the member site ready to watch or listen to.
Are you upset by what you see in the world – join with Alan Cohen, James Twyman, Michael Mirdad, Lisa Natoli and me – we’re bringing the darkness to the light together in this 5 week program that begins tomorrow, Saturday, May 30. Click here for more info.
NEW PODCAST EPISODE: Lisa Natoli: Joy of Being. For so many years, I lived as if joy was something I’d feel later, once the body cooperated, once the relationships settled, once the world looked safer. Many of us have. My friend Lisa Natoli, who you may know as a teacher of A Course in Miracles, just released a beautiful new book called The Joy of Being, and we sat down this week to talk about what she discovered while she was still very sick. What if we’ve all been waiting for something we already are?
