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281 I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.

Dear God, as another day draws to a close in this blessed land, let me remember that You are with me, around me, within this body. You are the power that moves my body, you are the mind with which I think. Let me walk in gratitude today. Let all my thoughts be still today.

281 I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.

MT: This is a time of fear, JC. The whole country is gripped by financial fear.
JC: And you?
MT: Somewhat less. It helped to meditate on money and to see my possessions as separate from who I am.
JC: Fear thoughts lead to fearful outcomes. Happy thoughts lead to happy outcomes. It is very simple, really.
MT: But my happy thoughts have often led to doing nothing.
JC: I never said to do nothing. I said that you need do nothing.
MT: The need, the urgency, that's what has to go.
JC: The urgency is how you push away peace. The precondition of peace is to realize that all is well. No matter what happens in the world of form, all is well in God's world.
MT: And the world I see holds nothing that I want.

282 I will not be afraid of love today.

MT: I'm drawing a blank, JC. Afraid of love? I think that's what I want above all things. Love, love is what I need.
JC: Yet you push it away any chance you get.
MT: Not as much as I used to. My heart is way softer than it was twenty years ago. But that's part of the illusion, isn't it?
JC: The illusion being . . .
MT: The illusion being that an unfriendly world denies me that which I seek above all things, when in fact I am the one who pushes it away.
JC: Yes. When you change your mind, the world changes accordingly.
MT: I have a picture of a trimtab, a tiny piece of equipment that changes the direction of a huge sea vessel.
JC: You become the world's trimtab, yes. And what about accepting my unconditional love today? What could you possibly lose by accepting God's love today?
MT: I always think that love has strings attached, that demands will be made on me, that I will become less by allowing myself to be loved, that I will lose by giving love in return.
JC: Why don't you try?

282 I will not be afraid of love today.

JC: What are the ways that you fear love? What forms does this fear take?
MT: Oh, JC, that's overwhelming! I think that the fear of love permeates my every action.
JC: And if you did not fear love, what would life be like, today?
MT: The surge of energy might be overwhelming too. Like your question.
JC: So you can take joy only in carefully measured doses. Think about it. The ego wants to be in control, even of happiness, which it claims to pursue above all other goals.
MT: But to fight my ego, that's just another way of keeping it in control.
JC: I agree that you cannot control with more control, and you cannot fight fear. Instead, look upon your ego with lightness and gentle humor. The only way to dispel fear is to let love in.
MT: I let love in today. Love will chase out all my fears today. So be it.

283 My true identity abides in You.

MT: You are so patient, JC. I have laid on the table my ego's objections and temper tantrums and arrogant posturing, and not once have you blown up at me.
JC: How could it be otherwise? My identity abides in God. Does the sun cast judgment upon that which it illuminates?
MT: So I get to bestow the same gifts on my brothers as my identity gets closer to God's.
JC: That is the path. That is the way back to God whom you never left. Now remember but one thing: the light of God's love shines on you as well. The love you offer your brothers is your natural inheritance.
MT: I get it. So much for sacrifice!

283 My true identity abides in You.

MT: When I first glance at these words, I go: "yeah, yeah, so?!!"
JC: Yet you gradually begin to accept the possibility of an implicate universe, a vast world beyond what the eyes can see.
MT: That is now part of my consciousness, yes. And it is astounding how I fight this vision, tooth and nail.
JC: You cannot escape it. You cannot escape God, and likewise your true identity is a given, much as being alive is a given.
MT: I remember how, as a teenager, I sought to mold myself to an identity I thought was more desirable. One had to create oneself, it seemed.
JC: What would it have been like, to be as God created you, back then?
MT: Oh, the freedom! What a wondrous path my life would have traveled. Every little choice would have been the right one.
JC: You can reclaim your true identity today. You can walk the wondrous path today. Every little choice can be the right one, today.

284 (2004) I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.

MT: I feel pretty happy this morning. My candidate may win the election. I am taking off weight. I stopped worrying about money.
JC: Good morning, MT. I feel on top of the astral world myself—and on the bottom, and on all sides of it.
MT: What do you mean, bottom and sides?
JC: For me, there is no bottom or top or sides. It's all the same.
MT: And . . . ?
JC: When you judge being "on the bottom" as undesirable, you are making up a world of differences. That's where your suffering comes from. But know that your cup can be overflowing even when the world tells you it's empty.
MT: That’s very Zen!
JC: Yours whenever you choose. Elect to change all thoughts that hurt, remember?

284 (2006) I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.

MT: How many times I dwell on past hurts and present offenses, my own and others'. Now you are telling me this need not be.
JC: Each instance of changing a thought moves you closer to peace.
MT: What's the difference between denial and changing one's thoughts?
JC: We are using an ego strategy to undo the ego, when we change our thoughts.
MT: So what is denial, then?
JC: Denial is the prohibition of a thought while its foundation remains the same: "I am guilty and a sinner--but let me not think about that, it's too painful."
MT: So real change comes from within.
JC: Real change comes from the mind's acceptance of Atonement, the recognition of your sinlessness.
MT: Let me say that this feels very different from denial! Glad I asked.

284 I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.

MT: The thought, the hurt, it's all my doing, isn't it? I long for the innocence of doing evil unconsciously.
JC: Spoken in jest, I presume.
MT: Yes and no. There was a certain freedom in it.
JC: And the results that unconscious evil brought, after the initial exhilaration, did they satisfy?
MT: Of course not. I gnashed teeth in my sleep.
JC: You forget the gifts that forgiveness brings, the gifts that forgiveness already brought.
MT: I already know the "better way." Today let me practice it. Let me practice changing all thoughts that hurt.

285 My holiness shines bright and clear today.

To me on this brilliant October morning in California, this lesson is about reverence. Reverence for God, for my brother, for myself, reverence for all living things of Earth. Holiness, part of me and part of God, ties us all together in a bond that can be denied but never broken.

When I eat with reverence, talk with reverence, walk, work, play and communicate with reverence, my life is transformed. Welcome, brothers, to the "hush of Heaven."

285 My holiness shines bright and clear today.

This is about reverence: reverence for all things, including myself. How do I treat my body? It deserves as much respect as does my cat, as do the finches outside my window, the plants that talk to me and tell me all about themselves. How do I treat the brother who panhandles in the corner? Is it not equally easy to see the Light in him? Let my holiness shine bright and clear on all things of Earth and Heaven today.

286 The hush of Heaven holds my heart today.

MT: How long you waited on the sidelines, JC, before time was ripe for this Course. These words, they come from Heaven itself.
JC: But, dear sister, when time is no more, two thousand years are like a second.
MT: I make up time by measuring and splitting and cataloguing, and time seems interminable. Or, alas, too fleeting.
JC: Those are only your feelings about time, which does not exist. Time is an artifact of the separated self.
MT: I want to experience timelessness again!
JC: The experience is yours when you let go of the yearning. When you know that it is your natural inheritance.
MT: I've got to cease flopping around like a fish on shore!
JC: But do not fight the fighting. Know only that you came from Love, and to Love you shall return.

286 The hush of Heaven holds my heart today.

How sweet it is, to know that all is well in God's world! To know that there is nothing to fear. To know that nothing can harm me because God's will and mine are one. Yes, I am fortunate indeed that I do not walk alone!

286 The hush of Heaven holds my heart today.

What is there to say, when all has been said? When the sound and fury of the ego has finally abated, when I no longer fight God, what is there to say? There is only Silence: the Silence of Heaven.

287 You are my goal, my Father. Only You.

MT: The word "father" always hits me in the face. Such a loaded word. It brings to mind the home of my childhood, where I learned helplessness, bitterness and defeat.
JC: Welcome to the Unlearning School.
MT: I find it easier to relate to God as an abstraction—cosmic intelligence, pure energy—than as a father.
JC: Yet the road to peace travels through relationships, starting with your father Peters. We won't even mention your mother yet!
MT: I made a peace of sorts with them. Some 90% of my knee-jerk responses are gone. But now there's my father-in-law. . .
JC: You can watch the senility and helplessness you didn't get to witness with your own father. Bill mirrors for you your fear of decay, dependency and death.
MT: Oh yes. Even though I'm not the one to wipe his bottom or even to feed or bathe him, his passive-aggressive demands grate on me.
JC: You've seen ants carry their wounded and dead comrades, have you not?
MT: Yes. I wonder how that behavior fits in with "survival of the fittest."
JC: Compassion. Taking care of one another. No, it doesn’t fit. Darwinism is not the Word of God.
MT: I should do better than an ant, but I'm ashamed to say, I have more compassion for a bird or lizard that my cat brings in than I do for Bill.
JC: So let's go back to the lesson for a moment. God the Father is your only goal, I said. He—it—the limitless unbounded energy of love—is your key to recognize your Self and to be one with your Identity. Your goal is not the human form that was Peters, or the human form that is Bill. When you relate to the human form, you make it real and encrust your own Self in human form. To worship the caricatures of God that you see around you is insane. As King Lear said, therein madness lies.
MT: I must look beyond the human form to the Self that it hides. Thank you, JC.

287 You are my goal, my Father. Only You.

MT: So you're challenging me today. Let me see:

I think that my goal is a better body, so I signed up for TaiChi. But my goal is God.
Is a nice, peaceful home with a serene garden my goal? No, my goal is God.
I imagine that my goal is to teach my son to raise the grandkids. But my goal is God.
I fancy that my goal is to stave off heart disease with diet and exercise, but my goal is God.
A fat portfolio of stocks and bonds is not my goal. My goal is God.

JC: All these are secondary. When your mind and God's are again One, you will know the truth of this with unwavering certainty. Miracles will surround you, when God is your only goal.

288 Let me forget my brother's past today.

MT: I stand before You, God, exactly as I am. Holding my hand in love and forgiveness is. . . President Bush! I must say, I have done nothing to support W in the job he's trying to do. Instead, I've used my intelligence and cleverness to attack and disparage him. I suspect this is really counterproductive, and makes me into a victim of the president and his party.
JC: You said it well. Nothing is gained by attack. W does not know this, but you do, and it's up to you to act on that knowledge.
MT: So what to do now? Surely I don't have to accept what he does.
JC: Again we return to an old theme: offer recognition to the Self behind the mask. It is irrelevant whether W remains on the job or has to look for another occupation. That is part of the illusion, for him, for you. Your task is to forgive.
MT: Thanks. And I thank you for a powerful image that has peace in it—W and I, holding hands before our God.

288 (2006) Let me forget my brother's past today.

MT: Looking at my post on this lesson last year, JC, I am startled that the person I most needed to forgive was George Bush.
JC: And now?
MT: My son, I guess, but I don't even want to look at this.
JC: Who walks out there, in George Bush, in your son?
MT: I do, of course. Denied aspects of me walk out there, wreaking havoc. Loose strands of my denial walk the world like apparitions, LOL!
JC: Can you see that it doesn't matter who does what to whom?
MT: Well, I want to engage with certain individuals, but if they weren't around I would find someone else.
JC: And the play goes on, unless and until you decide you will no longer act the role.
MT: How I do resist softening my heart. I get a perverse enjoyment out of blaming people and having others blame them with me. It just happened with the condo association, and it may lead to a lawsuit. We who see ourselves as ripped off agree, what the So-and-So's did is outrageous, unacceptable behavior. I get to talk on the phone or email people I wouldn't contact otherwise. This becomes my social circle, but "ain't they awful" is a pathetic subsitute for friendship!
JC: Having looked at the situation, are you willing to see it differently?
MT: Not sure, JC, that's the truth. Deep down I want to hold on to just this one little piece of blame.

288 Let me forget my brother's past today.

MT: My first reaction to these words, JC: it is difficult to forget.
JC: The ego sees difficulty. God sees infinite possibility.
MT: How did you think of that? I remember seeing infinite possibility. The rush of energy took my breath away.
JC: Behold how good it felt. Now think how you feel when you dwell on past wrongs.
MT: When I dwell on past wrongs, mine and others', I am an ugly wild animal growling in a cage.
JC: Which feeling do you prefer? When you dwell on past wrongs, you do it alone. Yet angels stand at the ready to join you in the world of possibility.
MT: Oh, I want this for myself!
JC: Offer it to others, that it may be your own.

288 Let me forget my brother's past today.

Let me contemplate, free of preconceptions, all of those I meet. Let me not hold grudges or nurture resentments. In this way, I am freed of my own past. My forgiven brother is my escort into the Kingdom.

289 The past is over. It can touch me not.

MT: But, getting back to yesterday's lesson, when I resent people who have ripped me off, that happens in the present.
JC: "Ripping off" is a concept out of a past unforgiveness of yourself.
MT: I am not seeing them as they are now.
JC: When you see them as they are now, all you see is their magnificence. You see the Christ in them.
MT: Sigh. You're asking a lot. These people are sleazebags.
JC: They are acting on the basis of past mislearnings, that is all. You have volunteered to be a teacher, and this is your lesson plan: to show others a better way. If not you, who then?
MT: So I am blaming them for acting as I desperately did many times past, before I recognized that money is only paper.
JC: Yes. So your question is now a different one, no?
MT: My question now is, how to bring the light of God to this situation.
JC: The brilliant light of God! Free to all, there for the taking, all you need do is ask.

289 The past is over. It can touch me not.

All present fears, these rules of decision, my avoidances, love that so quickly turned to hate or indifference, they all come from a past that I recreate this moment. They cannot touch me unless I choose to use memory as guide. Which shall it be, memory, or God?

The past is over. It can touch me not.

289 The past is over. It can touch me not.

MT: And what would it be like, to live without a past? To view every day with the clear eyes of a child? To let in the wonder of God's creations?
JC: You know the answer already. Your eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
MT: Yes, I know the exuberance, the promise, the opening of endless possibilities. But right now, truth is, I feel sleepy and dull and boring. I don't like how I feel.
JC: I love you, and I am here to walk with you if you will let me.
MT: I know what I need to do. I need to spend a day without obligations and programs and duties. A day to wipe the slate clean.
JC: That would be a day spent with me!

290 My present happiness is all I see.

MT: Thank you for the guidance regarding my projections on some condo association members.
JC: My greatest pleasure is to help you recognize your true Self.
MT: I thought I had to defend myself, otherwise everybody would rip me off! There would be nothing left for me!
JC: And now?
MT: I have a new perspective: what happens in this little blink of time is insignificant. That I can be an instrument of peace. That we can use this potentially destructive event to learn forgiveness. It is an opportunity, not a calamity. I am grateful that I can approach the association without anger.
JC: Behold your present happiness!

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