Q: Coming up for me at the moment is issues with parenting. I have discussed this briefly with you before, but I feel I need clarification. My wife and I are slowly allowing the teachings of the Course to spread throughout our entire lives now and are attempting to practice forgiveness without exception. The tricky one for me at the moment is discipline.

Tyler (my 3 and a half year old boy), is rather energetic, very intelligent, very stubborn and now beginning to offer me many forgiveness opportunities as he refuses to do as he is asked at times. So in other words he seems like a "normal" young Aussie boy. But each corner I turn, the world tells me that I need to discipline him in order for him to grow up and be a part of "society". Which is obvious rubbish to me, but what is making it a little more concerning is that all of the "spiritual" teachers that I have spoke to or researched so far are telling me the same type of thing. Most say that you need to help them to build up an ego before they can learn to undo it. This doesn't sit well with me and so I have come to a point where I now need to make a decision about this and follow it through without doubt.

Is it possible to discipline a child and exercise forgiveness at the same time? I can't think of many self realized teachers that have brought up children and of course the ego loves that one.

Anyway, any thoughts would be very helpful. Thank you.

A: Beloved One of God

Thanks for sharing what is on your heart and for your willingness to use everything for Awakening. Discipline can be equated with mind training, and the sleeping mind is in need of much mind training. What you say and do with your son is what your mind is teaching and reinforcing for itself. As you let the Holy Spirit speak and act through you, loving parameters and guidelines and rewards are used to teach what you would learn. These helpful forms reinforce the steps of Guiding the mind through attraction to what is most helpful, rather than through avoidance or negative consequences. Please refrain from judgment - peace within is its own reward.

Parenting in this world is truly just a backdrop to allow the ego's unconscious belief system to come up and be unlearned. Rest assured that all things work together for good and chance plays no part in salvation from illusions. While some spiritual traditions emphasize going off to a monastery or a convent or to the woods or mountains, the Course is a path that involves releasing judgments and grievances in the context of mind including what appears in awareness as perceived interpersonal relationships. Parenthood is an aspect of personhood, and this is the construct one is freed of in
Enlightenment. The Holy Spirit uses the symbols of the little make-believe "self" and gently Guides the mind into broadening vistas of consciousness. You are far more than a parent, yet this backdrop of parenting will be a rich opportunity for the undoing of the Authority problem. You will behold the forgiven world.

This world was the belief that it is possible to author a self different from the Christ Self God creates Eternally in Spirit. The simple word for this insane belief is pride. Pride is false authorship. God is the only True Parent, the Creator of Reality. And so it can be said that "parenting" with relation to bodies and body thoughts is the opportunity for the undoing of pride. The path before you is filled with many, many seeming opportunities to release the belief in self-authorship and control, the belief that a body can be a separate self that can be a "separate, unique individual." The body symbolizes the belief in private minds with private thoughts, which IS the ego. Yet given over to the Holy Spirit the path before you is a rapid undoing of every scrap of ego pride and control and resistance.

Tyler is a mirror of what you believe you are, as long as the belief in differences persists in awareness. Tyler represents an ancient unconscious belief system coming up into awareness to be unlearned. To love as God Loves, unconditionally, the obstacles to the awareness of Love's Presence must be exposed and released. Tyler presents daily opportunities to forgive every seeming grievance in the sleeping mind, so that Divine Love can be expressed without doubt or reservation or limit.

This is a moment of gratitude and Joy, for Now can the lesson be learned that there is no concept to hide and no concept to protect from the Healing Light of the Holy Spirit. Now can the mind be emptied of every opinion and judgment it sought to lay upon itself. For Innocence is real, and the Christ Child within is ever Innocent of error. Accept the Christ Child within by becoming willing to behold the Perfect One and completely unwilling to behold error of any kind. When you see that the Child abides in You and literally is You, the Spiritual Self, the need for time and lessons is no more.

May Blessings of Love shower upon You and Bless You, Holy One. I rejoice with You in this precious opportunity. I am with You every seeming step on the road to our Home, and because of the One Who goes with Us there is Great Joy! Angels hover over and keep watch, for the time of Awakening is nearer than a breath. There is a sparkle in the eyes of the one who knows of the many miracles that will be bestowed in this happy dream. There is a playfulness and lightness everywhere, for Christ has come to behold the Eternal Innocence that is the Heavenly Inheritance of everyone who seemed to go their way separate and alone. The illusion of separation cannot continue to seem to last, for the Light has come. Let our Light shine, and be the Beacon to light the way that once seemed dark and alone. Now the Christ Child can be no longer hidden from awareness. And we give thanks that this is so!

In overflowing Love.

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