Move from Doubt to Self-Guidance

We all have experienced the debilitating effects of living in doubt. Our mind juggles ceaseless thoughts, ideas, plans, worries, memories of past disappointments, expectations of future outcomes, and so on.

Is it really possible to live in certainty, to know how to respond to each and every situation or event? According to A Course of Love (ACOL), that is the way we would naturally live if we knew the truth of who we are:

You think it is perfectly sane to go through life without knowing anything “beyond a shadow of a doubt,” without knowing anything with certainty, when the reverse is what is true. It is sane to know the truth. It is insane not to know the truth.

Uncertainty of any kind is doubt about your self. This is why this Course aims to establish your identity, for from it all the rest will come.

Uncertainty, like all the rest of the ego’s thought system, was learned. Your true Self has no cause for uncertainty. Thus you are called, as well, to forget the uncertainty of the past.

It’s important to realize that living in certainty is the result of sustaining awareness of our true Self, which is the Self we share in unity, oneness, or universal consciousness. It’s not about relying on gurus or external authorities. ACOL says,

The laws of love bring spiritual freedom, the freedom that lies beyond belief, beyond thought, beyond adherence to any authority other than one’s own heart. It is to our hearts that we appeal for guidance, for there resides the one who truly guides.

Your ego will strongly resist your attempts to listen to your heart, and will call this every kind of foolishness, a waste of time that could be spent on better things. Yet time is not required, nor is money or the use of any other thing you value. And there is not even the slightest chance of being made to look foolish by what you are asked to do.

You have given others, whom you see as having more authority than you, license to provide you with their version of the truth, and for consistency’s sake you choose to believe in the version of the truth most predominate in your society. Thus the truth is different in one place than it is in another and it even appears to be in conflict.

Let us first consider the roles of teacher and learner. A teacher is first and foremost anything that aids your remembering. Thus look not at the form in which a teacher arrives. It can truly be said that all of life is your teacher. There is not one aspect of it that is not designed to help you to remember who you are.

If you fully accepted your true identity, you would no longer look outside of yourself for guidance for you would realize that your Self is all there is. Your Self is not the person you have been since birth. Your body does not contain you. You are everything and everyone. All that you see is you.

A Course of Love

Express your unique gifts: Expand your consciousness from the personal self to the true Self

Expressions of love are as innumerable as the stars in the universe, as bountiful as beauty, as many-faceted as the gems of the earth. I say again that sameness is not a sentence to mediocrity or uniformity. You are a unique expression of the selfsame love that exists in all creation. Thus your expression of love is as unique as your Self.

You must replace your willingness to believe in your inadequacy and smallness with your willingness to believe in your ability and mightiness.

Even when you think of expanding your view, you deem that expansion unrealistic. You cannot do everything. You cannot effect world peace. You can barely keep your personal concerns in order. Your heart has a different scope, a different view. It is the view from within the embrace, the view from love’s angle. The embrace is Christ-consciousness.

You will find that you fulfill a grand purpose, and have a wonderful part to play in a grand design. You will not feel cheated by losing your separated self. You will feel free.

A Course of Love

Discover your calling: Your service is your happiness

Your gifts, your talents, your uniqueness, are your service. There is no “other” who can follow the call meant for you. No other who can give the response you are meant to give.

Do not think that only those who are more bold than you or who speak more eloquently or who are better examples of a good and saintly life are those who will lead the way for others to follow. Do not give in to the idea that one special one is needed nor give to any one a role you would not claim for yourself. No leaders and no followers are needed.

Let us talk a moment of the concept of guidance. When you have sought guidance, you have sought because you have not known. You have sought externally because you have not known of a source of internal guidance.

You have been guided by teachers, counselors, and leaders of all kinds, through words spoken and read, through dialogue, through example. If you had known, you would not have sought guidance. Thus your idea of guidance is likely to hinge upon this concept of the unknown.

Now let’s speak a moment of the Self as guide. This simply means that you turn to the Self as the source of coming to know of the unknown. A guide shows the way, creates movement, gives direction. These things too the Self can do if allowed to do so. The Self will guide you if you will allow it to. You can trust in your Self. Will you?

Your self-guidance can be thought of as an internal compass. It will not necessarily know the answers as each answer is sought, but if paid attention to, it will show you the way to knowing.

A Course of Love