Could I be spending too much time bringing my problems to The Holy Spirit? Q #867: If I am focusing on bringing my problem to the Holy Spirit for a long time (hours, months) as opposed to a short time (minutes), am I making the error real? Or am I seriously looking at the guilt? I often get confused about this. Also, being a 12-step program attendee, if I talk about the problem I seem to be having in a meeting so I can look at it, is that making the problem real? Or, again, am I seriously looking at the guilt? My intention is to use that forum to look with the Holy Spirit at the problem. Hearing myself say it out loud in front of other people seems to help look at it. It begins to seem trivial and lose its power there, I think. A: If youre spending that much time on the perceived problem, more than likely, youre focusing on the wrong problem or, more accurately, the pseudo-problem rather than the real problem. You see, whatever seems to be a problem in our lives upon which we lavish so much concern and attention is always a smokescreen, to keep us from getting in touch with the underlying problem in our mind (W.pI.79) . And this is true regardless of whether the focus is on someone else or on ourselves, that is, the self we think we are. Our problems can seem so complex, with so many angles to consider, so many layers to work through, so many insights to pursue, before we can really understand and let go, release, “forgive.” And yet, we are remaining entrenched in the ego thought system, never really stepping outside it, simply rearranging the furniture on the Titanic, as one of our staff members once so aptly put it. Because Jesus is well aware of our tendency to try to solve problems at the wrong level, in A Course in Miracles he cautions us , ”If you believe you understand something of the ‘dynamics of the ego, let me assure you that you understand nothing of it. For of yourself you could not understand it. The study of the ego is not the study of the mind. In fact, the ego enjoys studying itself, and thoroughly approves the undertakings of students who would ‘analyze it, thus approving its importance. Yet they but study form with meaningless content. For their teacher is senseless, though careful to conceal this fact behind impressive sounding words, but which lack any consistent sense when they are put together (T.14.X.8:4,5,6,7,8). The temptation is almost unavoidable to perceive our problems as being the result of our relationships in the world. But thats no surprise since we, as the collective Son, established the world and relationships among bodies for the very purpose of keeping ourselves unaware of the underlying problem in the mind (W.pI.64.1:2,3,4; 2:1) . And so we can spend hours, days, months, even years, going around and around over the same or similar territory, analyzing the specifics to death. One form this can take is to trace all of our relationship issues back to our parents. At one level, this is true, for the dynamics of our relationships with our parents are repeated in all of the relationships we experience throughout the rest of our lives. But if our focus is on how the limitations of the parenting we experienced as children are at the root of all our problems in later life, we have not really gone far enough back, or more accurately, deep enough (for more on this, see Question #861). For even our initial relationships in this lifetime with our mother and father are symbolic of, or split-off fragments of, our initial primary special relationship with God. And that relationship is an insane hallucination that we have made up to maintain our belief in the separation, while holding someone else responsible for the guilt and pain that follows from it. And the specific problems and issues in our lives are only illusory shadows of that underlying imaginary ego dynamic with God. So our focus on ourselves and our relationships in the world is, from Jesus perspective, really misplaced. Not that our problems in the world can not serve a different purpose, when brought to the Holy Spirit (W.pI.64.2:2,3,4) . For they can become the portals to the darkened vaults of our mind, where the hidden ego beliefs will continue to wreak havoc on our peace until we shine the light of true forgiveness on them so that they can dissolve into the nothingness that is their essence. But so long as we maintain our focus only on the world and our lives here, those disruptive unconscious beliefs remain securely hidden and locked away from our awareness, but still festering in the recesses of our mind, infecting and affecting our every perception. Having said this, please dont think it follows from this answer that you should stop doing whatever you are doing, if it seems to help you resolve issues and conflicts in your life. You just want to be aware that until you identify and address the underlying issue or content -- your choice for separation and guilt in your mind -- you are not resolving the real problem (W.pI.79.6) . And you will find only temporary relief, much as an aspirin can briefly relieve the symptoms of an underlying chronic systemic problem in the body but is not addressing the source of the pain, which will return once the palliative effects of the drug wear off. facimoutreach.org/qa/questions/questions170.htm#Q867
Posted on: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:07:01 +0000
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