Gentle Healing Year 1 Tip For Lesson 19

Today’s workbook lessons says:

“Today we are again emphasizing the fact that minds are joined. This is rarely a wholly welcome idea at first since it seems to carry with it an enormous sense of responsibility, … Despite your initial resistance to this idea, you will yet understand that it must be true if salvation is possible at all. And salvation must be possible because it is the Will of God.”

I once saw a movie about Helen Keller called The Miracle Worker. Helen Keller was both deaf and blind. Since she could not hear and she could not see, she didn’t know how to talk or communicate with others. This created great frustration in her, and sometimes she threw outrageous temper tantrums.

Her parents hired a teacher, who tried to teach Helen sign language by signing against her hand, so she could feel the signs. However, Helen didn’t understand and nothing changed.

One day, Helen threw a temper tantrum at the dinner table. She threw a pitcher of water. Her teacher forcibly took her out to the well to refill the pitcher with water. As she pumped the well, she continually stuck Helen’s hand under the water and signed water against the palm of Helen’s hand. She did this over and over and then as if by some miracle, Helen understood. For the first time ever, she understood that what her teacher had been teaching was a way of communicating with others. Before, she hadn’t understood the concept of communication. When the concept of communication dawned on her mind, she became eager—really eager—to learn the sign for everything. Understanding the possibility of communication opened the world up to her.

I tell you this story now because this is how it was for me when I scribed NTI Ephesians. I had been a student of A Course in Miracles for about 2 years when I received NTI Ephesians. I learned about forgiveness through ACIM. I saw forgiveness as something that made me feel better, but really had no effect beyond that. When NTI Ephesians came, I understood the concept of salvation. I saw that what I give attention to affects me, yes … but beyond that, it affects others. I also saw that what I decide not to give believing-attention to frees me, and it frees others.

That was like my Helen Keller moment at the well!

Suddenly, I wanted to practice not giving believing-attention to every thought that could hurt anyone. I was excited to practice extending salvation to the world by not giving believing-attention to wrong-minded thoughts in my mind!

So yes, I saw, “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts” as an enormous responsibility, but it was a responsibility I was excited to embrace. Later, when I learned about why Prince Siddhartha left his family’s kingdom to seek enlightenment, I realized he was excited about the possibility of saving the world too. This responsibility can be highly motivating because we realize we are not practicing spirituality for ‘me’ alone. We practice spirituality for everyone. It is as Ramana Maharshi said:

“Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”

Note: If you’d like to see Helen Keller’s realization at the well, search YouTube for ‘Water scene from The Miracle Worker,’ or for full context, watch the entire movie, The Miracle Worker.