Pack Only What is Valuable

When your values are clear to you, making decisions become easier.
Roy E. Disney (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/roy_e_disney_183365)

 Distinguishing the Valuable from the Valueless.

You are packing your bag for an amazing  journey. Looking out at your life, you have to make some choices.  You have to decide what to take with you as you move on into the next chapter, and what to leave behind.  You want a meaningful life...one filled with true joy, peace and love, therefore you want to choose only what is valuable.  You do not want to fill your back pack with heavy valueless things that weigh you down. How then do you ensure that you are making the best choice for yourself and the world? According to Lesson 133 in ACIM, there are four criterion to follow in deciding what is valuable enough  to take: choose what is timeless and eternal; choose what doesn't take from  someone else; choose only what ego doesn't want and finally, choose that which leaves you without guilt or fear.

Huh?

Will it last forever?

The first thing you want to ask  before you pack that item into your mental bag is, "Will it last forever? " Everything of true value is not dictated by the laws of time.  It is time less.  Do you want to fill your mind and life with things that will perish?  Do you want to concentrate on materiality that is constantly changing, weakening, dying like bodies, material gain, social recognition, and even our thinking itself? Do you want to live like that, valuing the temporary and perishable over the eternal?  So what is eternal?  Self...the real Self ... is eternal and timeless.  Joy is timeless; peace is timeless, Love is timeless; wisdom is timeless; God is timeless, What is is timeless. (Mooji, 2014)The timeless and eternal  has no form, no weight to carry. This is what you want to fill your bag with. "Things", on the other hand, aren't timeless.  If your choice  has a form...if it is of time, it is not worth the space it will take up in your back-pack. Put it down.  It will not serve you or the world. It will not last.  Choose only that which  is timeless to carry with you.

Am I taking it from someone else?

Secondly, you must ask: "Am I taking this from someone else? Whatever you choose should not be subject to loss of any kind...yours or someone else's. When you take from someone else you still do not see you are taking from yourself. There is no gain in that"  Who seeks to take away has been deceived by the illusion loss can offer gain. Yet loss must offer loss, and nothing more." (ACIM,W-133:7: 4-5).  Do not pack your bag with things you felt you took from others.

Does the ego want this?

"Does the ego want this?" is the third question you should ask. Remember that what you really want is not what the ego wants.  What the ego cries for is something you do not need.  The ego actually doesn't even know what it wants but deep down you know what you want.  You want Love and joy and peace...and these are foreign to the ego though it pretends to know what things will bring this to you. Don't listen to ego.  As soon as you recognize ego is reaching for something it tells you to   pack...put it down and know it will not serve you or the world. It is valueless.

Will this choice leave me feeling guilty or fearful?

Finally you must ask, "Will this choice leave me feeling guilty or fearful?" If you feel anything remotely resembling guilt or fear know that you are giving ego what it wants rather than what will serve you best.  Any decision that is complex or difficult leaving you confused and ashamed...is not of Spirit.  It is of ego. "If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed ego's goals to come between the real alternatives." (ACIM, W-133:11:2) Choose again. Choose Love.

Is this valuable or valueless?

These four criterion will bring us to the only choice we have to make really.  " Is this valuable or valueless?".  If it is timeless, giving, empty, simple, egoless and without form or fear...it is the right choice to make.  Pack your bag with those things and you will be sure to live the life you were intended to...right here and now.

All is well.

References

ACIM (2007) Work Book for Students. ACIM: Combined Volume. Third Edition, Lesson133,pages 245-246. Mill Valley: Foundations of Inner Peace.

Mooji (2014) Set Your Heart Free Satsang. Retrieved from http://mooji.org.