In my book, Love Has Forgotten No One, I feature conversations with my teachers - Ascended Masters, Arten and Pursah, to discover more of the mysterious truth behind the modern spiritual masterpiece A Course In Miracles. Below is a conversation I had with Pursah and Arten included in the book.

PURSAH: In the next month especially, but also after that, you’re going to find yourself challenged on many different fronts. We’ve always said we wouldn’t tell you too much so you can have your experiences and then forgive them, but you’re going to feel overwhelmed.

GARY: Again?

PURSAH: Yes. But remember that we are with you always, watching everything. As manifestations of the Holy Spirit and Teachers of teachers, there’s no one of whom we are unaware.

GARY: Thank you. That means a lot to me.

ARTEN: Between now and our next visit, try to come from a place of not needing anything. If you need something, you’re coming from a place of scarcity. For example, if you want some money to do something, like a project, then think of the money as being a tool you can use to extend love. It doesn’t matter that you’re extending it into an illusion. What matters is the love, which is real, and the sense of abundance that comes from needing nothing. Then you can also extend that abundance. As the Course puts it: “Give, therefore, of your abundance, and teach your brothers theirs.”

GARY: Then that would also be true with relationships. You shouldn’t be going after a person because you need him or her. If you need someone, you’re deprived. But if you don’t need the individual, then you can join with that person out of a mutual awareness of abundance.

PURSAH: Yes. It applies to relationships, money, anything. What matters is that you’re doing things with the love of the Holy Spirit, and not for the glorification of the ego. It’s not what you do, it’s who you are doing it with. Is it the ego or the Holy Spirit?

Intelligence Without Love Is Nothing

ARTEN: A lot of people think it’s what they do that matters, and they use it as a subtle way of glorifying themselves and their intelligence. Yet it’s really the love that matters. If you’re coming from a place of love, then what you’re doing can be guided by spirit.

GARY: Yeah. It’s like when they discovered how to split atoms and develop something nuclear. What’s the first thing they did with it? They built a bomb! That may have taken intelligence, but it certainly didn’t require love.

ARTEN: That’s why Einstein asked a serious question: Is the human race good?

GARY: Given the nature of the ego, that’s a legitimate question. Under the dominance of the ego, the human race is at best split between good and bad, and that’s on a good day. It’s only if the mind is dominated by the thoughts of the Holy Spirit, which is something we have to choose for ourselves, that humans become increasingly good and eventually return to the Divine.

ARTEN: Well said.

GARY: I like what you’ve said about how intelligence without love is nothing.

There Are No Opposites in Heaven

PURSAH: How you use your mind is up to you. As Erich Fromm said, love is the answer to the problem of human existence; it’s also the way home. Of course what most quickly facilitates the experience of love is true forgiveness, which is why we always come back to that. But remember the word love in the Course is a term that’s representative of a complete thought system—the thought system of the Holy Spirit. And the word fear in the Course is also representative of a complete thought system—the thought system of the ego. The two thought systems are mutually exclusive and can never be reconciled. You have to choose one or the other or else your mind will be split. There are no opposites in Heaven, and in order to reenter the Kingdom of Heaven, there must be no allegiance to opposites in your mind.

GARY: As I’ve allowed the Holy Spirit to take over more and more of my mind, which isn’t a scary thing because the Holy Spirit is actually what I am in reality anyway, I’ve also gotten the impression that I really don’t have to be concerned about the kinds of things I used to be concerned about. For example, I’ve noticed the last couple of years that I’m just not as interested in politics as I used to be. I think I’ve forgiven politicians on the TV screen so much that these things just don’t have as big an effect on me as they used to.

PURSAH: Excellent. And that doesn’t mean you can’t vote if you want to or pay a little bit of attention. It means that you’re not in a reactionary state about it, and thus much more peaceful.

GARY: Yeah, and I don’t seem to be as concerned about having enough money to retire or do things. It’s like I know my needs are being taken care of, and they always will be.