One error that creeps into the minds of many spiritual students is “magical thinking.” Magical thinking is believing that spiritual practice protects us and makes us happy by correcting the things in the world that we think need correcting. This error is fairly common and is fiercely protected by the ego, so it isn’t always easily let go.

Why is this error protected by the ego? Lesson 50 answers that question. “All these things are cherished to ensure a body identification.” Valuing magical ideas is the same as valuing pills, money, etc, because the emphasis is on valuing form.

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God’s Voice is silent. It communicates with no words at all. We ‘hear’ God’s Voice more as an intuitive feeling. An example of God’s Voice is the feeling ‘all is well.’ When we feel ‘all is well’ under all circumstances, we are listening to God’s Voice consistently.

God’s Voice prompts us in daily life, if we are willing to ‘listen’. It may come through as a feeling that ‘I don’t need to do anything’ about a particular situation; ‘I can wait’ or have patience. It may come through as a feeling that ‘it is best if I say nothing now’. Or it may come through as a feeling that ‘it is best if I say this particular thing now’. It may come through as awareness, noticing that ‘I am listening to an out-of-control mind now’ and a reminder to breathe and shift attention, etc.

Today’s workbook lesson does not have a period of meditation. At our last Gentle Healing group meeting, I asked you to practice 5 minutes of awareness-watching-awareness meditation each morning even if the workbook lesson does not include meditation. This is a reminder of that request and, hopefully, a little bit of inspiration regarding the request.

Our reading this week is NTI James. In NTI James, Chapter 4, we are reminded, “You always receive as you have asked, … You ask from the process of creation through desire, which you give your energy to.” And then we are told, “Quietness is attentiveness.”

We are spending two days with Lesson 47, because it represents an important shift. It represents a shift from trusting in ‘me’ to trusting in a mystery that the mind cannot begin to fathom.

Last week I wrote about some of the aspects of reality: life, awareness, intelligence, and love (unconditional-allowance). Another important aspect of reality is mystery; reality can never be fully understood.

The human idea of love is very different from the love of God. Our ideas about love miss the mark by quite a bit. Since our ideas about love are mistaken, we can also misunderstand a lesson that uses the word ‘love.’ Therefore, let’s take a minute to look at ‘love’ in order to get more clarity about it.

Love is best defined as openness. That’s what all embracing allowance is: openness.

Other words that help us understand the meaning of love are non-judgment and non-interference.

To illustrate, let’s consider the space the room where you are sitting now (or the space outside, if you are outside now). If you contemplate the space around you, notice it is open, allowing, non-judgmental, and non-interfering. For example, if two lovers decide to make love in the space around you, the space does not try to stop them. Its openness naturally allows that. Likewise, if one person violently murders another person in the space around you, the space does not try to stop that either. Its openness is as open to murder as it is to making love. The openness of space is so naturally open, it can’t be anything but open. Judgment and interference are impossibilities for the space around you.

God (our true nature) is like the space around you. God is completely open. God cannot be anything but completely open.
Love is the perfect openness of God.

Consider love as perfect openness as you review these phrases and sentences from today’s lesson:

God does not forgive because He has never condemned.

His Love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness.

God is the Love in which I forgive myself.

I have already been forgiven.

Optional Practice: If you’d like to add an extra practice today, take some time to notice your natural openness. You won’t find your natural openness in the mind. The mind obviously judges, rejects, condemns, etc., but there is a part of you that is always perfectly open. That is your true nature.

You might start this extra practice by spending a few moments contemplating the space around you. Notice its intrinsic openness. Then, close your eyes, and notice your intrinsic openness. Notice that all of the sounds in your environment are allowed by your openness. Notice that all of the sensations in your body are allowed by your openness. If the mind begins to chatter, notice your openness allows the mind’s chatter too. Your openness is completely natural for you. It’s an openness you cannot close. In that way, you are like the space around you.

If you notice your inherent openness for even a fraction of a second today, you have taken a giant step toward realizing your true nature.

You will spend 2 days with this lesson, before going to the next lesson.

In order to have openness regarding what this lesson points toward, we may need a different understanding of the words “thought” and “think”.

In The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, Michael Langford defines thought as “the words of your native language in your mind.” Thoughts can also come as pictures in the mind’s eye. However, when Lesson 45 says, “You think with the Mind of God. Therefore, you share your thoughts with Him, … They are the same thoughts, because they are thought by the same Mind,” it is not referring to the words of your native language in your mind and it is not referring to picture thoughts. This is important to know, because if you are looking for the right words in your mind or the right pictures, you will remain focused on form and not go beyond form, which is where your “real thoughts” are realized.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “thought” simply as “past tense and past participle of think.”

“Think” has a few different definitions, but the one that applies most in this context is “to have in mind” with “mind” defined as “consciousness.” Therefore:

Think = To have in consciousness

So a ‘thought’ is something in consciousness.

Our ‘real thoughts’ are the aspects of reality. I introduced some aspects of reality in the second tip for Lesson 44. Life, awareness, and all embracing allowance (love) are aspects of reality, so life, awareness and all embracing allowance are examples of your real thoughts.

Your real thoughts will not show up in your mind as word-thoughts or picture-thoughts. Word-thoughts or picture-thoughts that point toward your real thoughts or which reflect your real thoughts can appear in your mind, but to directly experience real thoughts, one needs to transcend the fascination with word-thoughts and picture-thoughts.

Today and tomorrow as you practice Lesson 45, try to go beyond word-thoughts and picture-thoughts to see if you can realize the aspects of reality (our real thoughts), which are always with you.

Note: Stay with Lesson 45 for two days. Go to Lesson 46 the day after tomorrow.

Yesterday I wrote that “light” and “awareness” are synonymous in the context of Lesson 44. If you read Lesson 44 with this realization, the lesson speaks clearly. For example, it says “light and life must go together, being but different aspects of creation.” In this sentence, “creation” is a term used to mean the ‘totality of reality’. It doesn’t refer to form. It refers to the cumulative aspects of reality, such as life (isness), awareness (light), intelligence (knowledge) and love (all embracing allowance).

In Lesson 44, we are focused on one of those aspects, light (awareness). We are told, “In order to see (true vision), you must recognize that light is within, not without.” In other words, we don’t see by sunlight or by light bulb. Seeing isn’t with the eyes at all. We see with awareness.

In The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss Michael Langford wrote, “Awareness is not thought. Awareness is that which is aware of thought. … Awareness is not emotions. Awareness is that which is aware of emotions. … Awareness is not the objects seen by the eyes. Awareness is that which is aware of the objects seen by the eyes.”

Here’s a brief story that points directly to the light of awareness:

The other day I was taking a shower in a bathroom with no windows. While I was in the shower, the electricity went out. Since there wasn’t a window in the bathroom, once the lights went out I could not see anything at all. It was as dark as the darkest cave. Even though I couldn’t see anything, I was aware I could not see. The light of awareness was present even though physical light was not present. That’s why Lesson 44 says, “An essential part of this equipment is the light that makes seeing possible. It is with you always, making vision possible in every circumstance.”

As we practice Lesson 44, we are focused on the aspect of reality known as awareness. Since awareness is an aspect of reality, focusing on awareness is a way of realizing the nature of reality. Thus, keeping attention on awareness is “attempting something very holy.”

Note: There is no tip for the third day with Lesson 44. However, be sure to read and practice Lesson 44 tomorrow too. The day after tomorrow, go on to Lesson 45.

You will stay with this Workbook lesson for three days in order to learn how to meditate by focusing on awareness. “Light” and “awareness” are synonymous, so “God is the light in which I see” also means “God is the awareness in which I see.”

Please read the workbook lesson in full each of the three days that we practice this lesson. Each day, you will meditate three times during the day for 3-5 minutes each time. If you are comfortable meditating longer, you can meditate longer. However, avoid introducing strain or a sense of self-competition. It’s more helpful if the meditation is relaxing.

Here is the form of meditation to use as you practice Lesson 44:

1. Begin each meditation period by repeating the lesson to yourself with your eyes open. Notice that you are aware your eyes are open. Notice you are aware that you are repeating the workbook lesson to yourself.
2. Close your eyes and repeat the workbook lessons several more times. Notice that you are aware your eyes are closed. Notice that you are aware you are repeating the workbook lesson to yourself.
3. Let go of repeating the workbook lesson. Notice you are aware the workbook lesson is no longer being repeated.
4. Keep attention with awareness. Be aware that you are aware. Notice that regardless of what you hear, feel or think, awareness is present.
5. Continue to keep attention with awareness. Simply remain aware that you are aware for the remainder of the practice session.

If you want to, watch this optional 29-minute video, Introduction to Awareness Watching Awareness.

Note: Although we are staying with Lesson 44 for three days, you will have a new tip tomorrow.

During this lesson’s practice sessions, we are asked to allow related thoughts to come to us. The lesson says, “Any thought related more or less directly to today’s idea is suitable. The thoughts need not bear any obvious relationship to the idea, but they should not be in opposition to it.”

We have seen this practice of ‘allowing related thoughts’ a few times now. This is a very helpful practice.

We all have the ability to listen to thoughts that reflect truth and point toward truth. When we allow thoughts into our mind that are related to the workbook lesson, we are tuning into that ability. The more we tune into that ability, the easier it is to access those thoughts.

Imagine it this way: You know from NTI Ephesians that we receive thoughts rather than think thoughts. Imagine thoughts flying through the air with darker (more untrue) thoughts being at a lower, heavier vibrational level and with lighter thoughts (pointing towards truth) being at a higher vibrational level. Both types of thoughts are flying by, but your receiver (the mind) is tuned at a level that picks up on the heavy, more dense thoughts. Because it is so used to the density of these thoughts, it doesn’t even notice the lighter ones.

During these practices, you are learning to retrain or retune your receiver so it notices and becomes accustomed to the lighter vibration. Your mind is becoming sharper and more sensitive (more discerning), so that it notices the difference between the lower vibration and higher vibration thoughts, and then it tunes itself to pick up the higher vibration and pull those thoughts into the mind so you can give attention to them.

In the Course, listening to the higher vibrational thoughts is commonly called listening to the Holy Spirit or the right mind. This is the training we go through as we allow related thoughts into our mind during these practices.

It is possible that your ego will tell you that you are only making up the related thoughts that come to you as you practice the workbook lessons, but if you remember that you don’t make up thoughts, you receive them, then you will know the thought about making up related thoughts is just a lower vibrational thought trying to pull you back into the lower vibration thought stream.

The workbook gives great instructions for staying with the higher vibration. It says, “If you find your mind wandering; if you begin to be aware of thoughts which are clearly out of accord with today’s idea, or if you seem to be unable to think of anything, open your eyes, repeat the first phase of the exercise period, and then attempt the second phase again. Do not allow any protracted period to occur in which you become preoccupied with irrelevant thoughts. Return to the first phase of the exercises as often as necessary to prevent this.”