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SearchDo I have to continue listening to the "negative" people in my life?
Question:
As I study the Course I am more and more aware of the negative thoughts and beliefs of people in my life. One friend I have known for years is now too negative for me to even listen to; I have tried to see only the good things in her and ask for healing, but I find myself not wanting to talk to her because of this negativity. Help.
Answer:
Thanks for writing and opening your heart to invite a miracle. Bodies are the "acting out" or "witness" of thoughts that God did not create. At no single instant do they exist at all, for they are always remembered or anticipated and have nothing to do with the Eternal Present. The realm of Spirit is beyond the realm of forgiveness, and far beyond the realm of judgment, yet the miracle shows that judgment has had no real effect since it had no real cause. God is a real Cause and Christ a real Effect. It is helpful to be reminded that you are not the "thinker" of negative thoughts—or even positive thoughts which are the seeming "opposite" —nor the believer of erroneous belief. You are and forever remain God's Beloved One.
To join or accept the Purpose of forgiveness is to include everything in the cosmos in one whole mind and simply see that there is nothing to reject. Attack thoughts, given to the Holy Spirit, turn into Angels. What seems like "negativity" is a Call to see Angels, a Call to see what you really are asking for deep within. The block in awareness you are describing involves what I will call "people pleasing." God Wills You Be Happy, and no thought of bodies (positive or negative) has anything to do with our Spirit. To "join" with people is simply the Call to realize that there is nothing separate or excluded from our whole mind. This realization has nothing to do with "talking to" or "not talking to,” yet people pleasing always involves guilt projected onto behaviors. If you will not protect the thoughts which seem to be arising in awareness, you will find that they will vanish without effort. For the "negativity" which seemed to be had no foundation on which to exist in the Present Reality of God's Love. As an airplane rises above the clouds, the sunlight is brilliant and the sky crystal clear. Such is the Clarity of Awakening.
Focus on what you really want to experience and do not believe that "negativity" or judgment is something that our holy mind of wholeness can ever be responsible for. Our sole responsibility is for accepting the Correction of error. Just be willing not to protect error, and you will see that the error has gone and only a blessing remains. Arise and remember the Joy that is our natural Inheritance, and be not concerned with the coming and going and speaking and not speaking of bodies. If the Holy Spirit directs you to be still, rest assured that everyone and everything is included in that stillness. Spiritual Communion with God IS relationship, and bodies were made by the ego to obscure the Oneness of Spirit. Take no thought for bodies as you rejoice in your newfound Purpose, and allow yourself permission to taste the Divine Abstraction of Mind. First will come the experience that there are no parts in wholeness. Oneness cannot BE divided. And as you approach the wholeness of the forgiven world it becomes apparent that "scraps of judgment" have nowhere to hide. Nothing can truly block the Light of God's Love.
Step inward, away from what seemed to be "negativity" with your "friends." Attack thoughts are to be recognized as unreal and laughed at, not taken seriously. Let the Holy Spirit be the Friend on which you rely and depend upon. The Holy Spirit is a Friend that will always remind of the Oneness of God's Love. And in feeling this Vast Love, there is only extension and sharing. Once you see that there is nothing to "get" from any "body,” the "people pleasing" has vanished forever, and only Love remains Present.
Showering You in Love Beloved of God, David