One of the most helpful A Course in Miracles lessons for me in changing my mind is Lesson 25: “I do not know what anything is for.”
It tells us: “Purpose is meaning. You do not know what anything is for. Therefore, it is meaningless to you. Everything is for your own best interests. That is what it is for. That is its purpose. That is what it means.”
Everything is for our own best interests.
When I am willing to see that everything is helpful to me, then I can find the meaning in it. I can discover what it’s for. When I don’t have conflicting goals, I can see clearly. When I’m willing to drop the meaning I’ve made of things, I can see that everything works together for my good.
This Workbook Lesson gives a beautiful example about a telephone. We know what a phone is for – it’s for contacting someone. But we don’t know why we really want to contact them. We think it’s about getting eggs on the way home. But is that really what it’s for?
If we’re calling about the eggs with love, out of love, from love, as love – then it’s a meaningful conversation, even though it’s just about getting eggs.
Here’s what helped me see it correctly: my approach now is always, “I don’t know what this is for – but I’d like to. I’m willing. I’m a willing student. Holy Spirit, teach me.”
This is how I’m learning to see the world in another way – to see everything as being helpful. Even when I don’t like how the learning comes. I would prefer to learn through Joy, as A Course in Miracles consistently instructs us that we can.
We can learn through Joy.
But until we’re really willing to, we’re going to learn through pain. Because that’s what we’re choosing.
Everything works together for good, and there’s no exception whatsoever. None. Not a one.
It’s crucial to our learning to be willing to give up the goals we’ve established for everything. Recognizing that they’re meaningless – rather than good or bad – is the only way to accomplish this.
Our Change Your Mind About the World program is built around this very practice – learning to see purpose and meaning where we used to see only chaos. Tomorrow we have our first class with Alan Cohen. I hope you’ll join us! Click to register now.
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?
