THE GIFTS OF GOD — Sondra Ray and Markus Ray on A Course in Miracles

MARKUS RAY gives a general overview of A Course in Miracles, which is a "mind training" we can take to clean up our Mind. The Mind gives us our results. Is our result Heaven or Hell? We are responsible for these results. Is Peace and Joy our priority? We are as God created us in terms of our Minds being part of God's Mind. These Thoughts we share with God will result in our Heaven state, our Joyful state. Forgiveness is the means to let go of our judgments and grievances that separate us from God's Thoughts. We can change our minds anytime we are thinking wrongly, resulting in a Hell.

Whenever we are not feeling JOYOUS, we are siding with some frequency of our ego, and this is "wrong-mindedness." Thinking with the "Thoughts of God" would inevitably lead us to JOY. We could focus on the negative aspects of things, or we could focus on those things that put us in a state of gratitude. Jesus is here to help us get in the Spirit of our True Self. This leads us to JOY. All else is what we need to release. When we are feeling "dis-spirited," we need but say, "This need not be."

You "are the Kingdom of Heaven." This statement puts us in our true Self. We are joined with the Christ and all of our Brothers and Sisters in the UNITY with God. Once we have this knowledge, we cannot go back to the conflicts of the ego. The ego is unclear about Love. It "loves and hates" itself simultaneously. Once we have a taste of "the permanence and unshakeable being of the Spirit," we would never go back to the conflicts of the ego.

The ego thinks it is totally on its own. It perceives itself "rejected" by something greater than itself. Self-esteem in ego terms is very unstable. The world of perception can be transformed into right mindedness, but the conflicts of the ego would have to be undone. Personal myths and magic would also need to be relinquished. The Self of the spirit, not separated from our Source, is our Reality. Perception can be transcended to be in a state of Knowledge, but we will have to question the validity of the ego, and accept our Self as God created us.

WE made up an ego that is always incomplete, lacking, and incessantly wanting to "get more stuff." The changing fields of the ego's thought system throws away true Knowledge. We are basing our self-image on something variable and unstable. Transcendental Knowledge is unchangeable. It is absolute. Coming from the relative thought system of the ego, there is no stability in our beliefs. Truth is from the higher realm of Knowledge. The Absolute will always undo our lower levels of mind if we are willing to invite the Christ to cooperate for our inner correction.

Christ is here to teach us the time for "learning" has come to an end. We are created Perfect and we are Perfect irrespective of what we "know" or what we think we still need to "learn." Our Identity has no "degrees." Our college "degrees" have nothing to do with our True Self worth. That was established by our Creator. We can hand our egos and our bodies over to the Christ to cleanse and to use. We have to pass through the door of the "unknown" so that we can accept who we are a God Created us to be. Jesus can help us. He says, "I will live with you and teach with you if you will think with me." Can we think with the Christ? We can.

This Chapter #4, The Illusions of the Ego, are explored. We are asked to relinquish the ego's thought system—and take up the Holy Spirit's guidance system. The Foundation of Knowledge is within us. But we must first be willing to give up our fear, guilt, and anger that the ego uses to perceive. Can we bring our perception to an end—if only for an instant? We must in order to step into this "stillness of the Peace of God" and transcend the illusions of the ego.

We are either accepting our Self as God created us, or we are "making up" a self we think we created. These are two thought systems that are irreconcilable. Which way do we go? The Illusions of the Ego or the Reality of the True Self? This final section VII in Chapter 3. make this distinction very clear. The choice seems to be one that is easy to make now.

There is a level of Reality that is beyond judgment. And there is a Knowledge that transcends perception. It is free of judgment. Judgment involves a rejection. Then we go into a conflict with what we have "judged." The other part of this section involves the "authority problem." Were you made up by a separated self (ego) or created in the like quality of Your Creator (the True Self)? These are some of the themes of this podcast.

Are we as GOD CREATED US, or have we deluded ourselves with the "self we made?" Perception versus Knowledge is the subject. What we "made up" as an image of ourselves versus the SELF GOD CREATED is discussed. "Making" versus "Creating" is an important distinction to understand. In Creation there are no needs. Our Identity as SPIRIT frees us from all "doing" or "making." Knowledge is stable and can be ours when we Identify with our Self as Spirit. In our right-mindedness we are close to Knowledge. We can make the decision for the Heaven State of Being.