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101 God's will for me is perfect happiness.
MT: There is a book on my shelf, Happiness Is a Choice. When I am unhappy,
I am defying God, I am trying to replace God. Therefore, misery must not
exist, because I cannot possibly replace God. What a preposterous idea,
that I could possibly replace God!
JC: From this tiny, mad idea, come all the woes that befall the world.
MT: Without misery, there is no story. What happens to all of literature,
music, visual arts, when we all are possessed by joy?
JC: For the second time in history, man will have discovered fire. New
venues for his creativity will be found.
MT: Man has longed for Paradise ever since the Fall, but Paradise brushes
his face, too close to see. JC, there is a scary thought in my head (there
I go, generating fear): I live in society. There are group processes such
as the perceived need for war, that once rolling acquire a life of their
own. There was an inevitability about all the woes of last century, once
the first shot was fired by Gavrilo Princip. Good people, like my family,
were quite helpless in the mob mentality.
JC: I had a sense of urgency when dictating to Helen. She was not totally
ready, but the need to see the world differently becomes increasingly
dire as man develops ever more sophisticated weapons. A mob mentality
is a threat only as long as individuals do not think for themselves. This
Course teaches you to think for yourself. That is its power.
MT: That's so true. Having studied this long, I know I could never belong
to a cult. You installed a magnificent BS detector in my head.
JC: Choose happiness today. In releasing the dark thoughts that cloud
your mind, you access the power of love. You can then offer a hand to
lead others out of darkness.
102 I share God's will for happiness for me.
MT: Yes, I do want to be happy. I choose to be happy. I have recently
found happiness in the smallest things. It's a mental attitude, but it
also has a physical component, a certain energy in the body. I can make
myself unhappy by, say, eating a supersized McDonald's meal and then sitting
in the recliner the rest of the evening, the only thing you can do after
a 1,200-calorie meal. My body needs basic care, and the emotional component
of getting run down with food temptations and inactivity is difficult
to overcome once it gets underway. Perhaps it's just guilt that comes
into play. . . but I don't think so. There's a mystery here, JC. I've
long thought of the Course as being directed to the mind only, but it
wouldn't seem so. Any comments?
JC: How nice that you ask. The mental and the physical become integrated
as you learn to treat your body with love, as you would a pet. It responds
to tenderness.
MT: One becomes conscious, and then it's difficult to act irresponsibly.
I am discovering a hub for all the spokes of my life. Tell me, what needs
to happen with this diet thing? With taking off 10 pounds? Am I just making
the body real, and then trying to change it? Shoot, I'm afraid you'll
say yes. . .
JC: You ask the question, then you fear your own answer!
MT: Yes, I am only human, or should I say, I'm only divine? My own answer
is a stern: Of course, you are making the fat real, and then trying to
dispose of it! Big mistake! You can't even do the Course right!
JC: You can lose weight without losing peace. You can just say so: I am
losing 10 pounds. I am releasing 10 pounds of fat from my dear body that's
been carrying this burden around far too long. And it is done, in Heaven
as on Earth. You rule your universe.
MT: I can be happy AND lose weight! I've hit the jackpot! I don't have
to be miserable in order to be happy later, when I'm thinner!
JC: Share God's will for happiness for you, and do it today, without conditions.
103 God, being Love, is also happiness.
MT: So much for the misery we've been carrying around! Millennia of misery,
when we could have been happy all this time.
JC: You got it. Millennia of misery--good words. I'll use them myself
sometime.
MT: I feel a lot happier these days. Somewhere along the line, with these
daily postings, I've let go of a mind trap. I don't even know what the
trap was.
JC: Welcome home. It matters not how you got here.
MT: Except for showing others the way.
JC: When you need that information, you will remember it.
MT: Thank you, JC. You are such the good friend, you bring tears to my
eyes. Like Hobbes the tiger, Calvin's companion. That's startling--I loved
that cartoon strip. In some obscure way a cartoon presaged my relationship
with you.
JC: That's the universe as a hologram. There is no "you" or
"I." We are one. In each is the whole contained.
104 I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
MT: I begin the day with the Thought of God: peace and joy belong to me.
They are my natural inheritance. They are also not finite quantities--they
are contagious, like a cold, the gift that keeps on giving. When I am
not at peace, I am leaving my Father's House to wander the world barefoot,
like a prodigal son. Sometimes it seems I need to experience the world
of the ego once more, just to reaffirm that I do not want it. I am like
the addict who tries out the substance once again, because he forgot the
pain.
JC: You said it. No need to try your drug of choice any longer.
MT: I need to pack today--going away for the weekend. Packing and planning
used to be stressful times, until I learned to just do what was in front
of my nose, put in the suitcase whatever came to mind in the moment, and
somehow that got the job done and took away all stress. Call it guidance,
I guess.
JC: It is also learning new ways of conducting your life. Learning to
"choose again." So today, do not walk alone like a prodigal
son. My voice goes with you.
MT: Thank you. Peace and joy are my companions today and always.
105 God's peace and joy are mine.
MT: In the "old days” of BC, Before Course, I would think:
how do I know peace and joy are mine? Oh, by going off in solitude so
I could hold on to them. Everybody knows that people spoil joy and rob
me of peace, right?
JC: And you learned otherwise. You learned that there is no selfish happiness.
Your husband used those words. He could see how you were making yourself
miserable, you could not.
MT: And yet, he was the master at making his life, and mine, miserable.
We can see it so plainly in others, and still not know it in our lives.
JC: So now you are part of the Great Undoing. Nothing actually happens.
The carpet of time rolls back, and there's eternity.
MT: Those words give me the shivers. The Great Undoing--nothing happens--the
carpet of time.
JC: Because you remember, for a fleeting moment, where you came from.
MT: I came from Eternity, and to Eternity I shall return. What could disturb
me now, when I remember my Source?
JC: God's peace and joy are yours, now and forever.
106
107
108 To give and to receive are one in truth.
MT: Thanks for your company this weekend, JC. You were right there, I
know. It was perfect.
JC: Glad to be there. I enjoyed Pinnacles through your eyes and ears,
nose and skin.
MT: To give and to receive are one, because the Sonship is one--we are
all Spirit. I think I've got this one by heart. I wonder, where in my
life haven't I got it?
JC: All over the place! You have the concept, but it remains for you to
live it.
MT: Ouch. Today, please show me. When I give, I give to myself. I'll be
watching for chances to really get it.
109 I rest in God.
MT: Here's my weather report, JC. I feel quiet this morning. I woke up
to the constant thinking that seemingly dominates my mind, but it was
more removed in that it didn't bother me. I am also more aware of dreams
these days. I am aware that my foot hurts from all the hiking, and I think
up strategies to help it heal. Some work, most do not. The house is quiet,
cat stretched out on my lap so I have to write sideways on the laptop--can't
do this very long! hopefully the cat will get too warm and jump off soon.
Do I rest in God? I think not, not right this minute. Does it matter?
JC: The weather here in Spirit-land is non existent. All that is, is the
music of the spheres. I chose to offer you access to this realm.
MT: Amazing. You just did it. There is a world beyond the world my ideas
make up.
JC: You are either with God, or you are with an idea. I offer options,
but the choice is yours.
MT: I rest in God. I breathe in the air of my Father's garden. Silence
arrives with cat feet. Freedom is so close, I can taste it, and wings
of angels brush ever so softly against my cheek, as I linger here awhile
before I go on.
JC: You do not go alone. Go with God today and always.
110 I am as God created me.
MT: Pretty central thought, I guess. You repeat it dozens of times in
the upcoming lessons. You really want to drum it in.
JC: Drum it in?! I want to etch it in stone, carve it in rock, write it
with a flaming torch against the night sky. You are as God created you.
Anything else is illusion, and does not exist.
MT: How quickly I forget, and slip into thinking that only makes me miserable.
JC: This is the antidote, the thought that cancels out the others. If
you but fully remembered this, you would be saved in an instant, and the
world along with you.
MT: Speaking of the world being saved with me--how's that supposed to
happen? It only takes one, you said. One who completely accepts the truth
of these words.
JC: The inevitable conclusion comes from another basic thought: you are
one with your brothers, and they with you. What happens within you affects
everybody else, all around the globe. I knew this truth when I walked
the Earth, and I tried to bring about Atonement in one bold stroke.
MT: Like a crystal of ice dropped into a beaker of supercooled water,
instantly turning it to solid ice.
JC: Nice image. I didn't completely succeed, but the world is much closer
to readiness now. That is why I enlisted Helen and Bill's help, and why
I am enlisting your help today. You are as God created you. Remember this
truth today, and remind others of their natural inheritance. Your thoughts
and actions cannot <not> have an effect. It is up to you to choose
the effect you want to have.
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