What does it mean to be honest? If you think you are a person bound by time and space, then you haven’t been honest enough. Therefore, first things first: you need to turn towards getting truly honest, and never look back.
Be honest with how you feel. When you feel upset, fearful, contracted, you can pay attention to that emotion. Allow the feeling and then look at it. Expose the beliefs that are running with it. Watch your thoughts. You don’t have to try to avoid the emotion. You can have an attitude in your heart of, “Show me, guide me. Expose what I believe in. What lies beneath my upset?”
Sometimes when you start to experience an upset, words are used as intellectual shields against letting yourself feel the upset. This short-circuits the feelings and represses them.
Let go of intellectual defenses that keep you from experiencing your emotions. What is the belief beneath the surface thoughts? Watch your thoughts and be curious about what you will be shown. Listen.
“It is always dangerous to start off with saying, ‘The world is not real.’ In fact, this is the most misused teaching of A Course in Miracles on the planet. We don’t need a bunch of people walking around saying, ‘It’s not real. It’s not real.’ Jesus didn’t even say that in the bible.
Three years he went around and didn’t say it once and now we have Course students and teachers saying it all the time. We don’t want to teach beyond our own level of experience, because that would be a contradiction. It would be like a parent telling their children, ‘Be loving and kind always.’
If the parent was loving and kind always, that would be speaking from the heart, it would be a natural expression. It is better to start off with, ‘I believe this world is real’ and go from there. Then ask to be shown that the world isn’t. You try to leap-frog with the words. We call that ‘metaphysical ghosting’—taking high principles and speaking them. Almost like affirmations. It’s not really helpful.”