Sometimes the journey out of illusion seems long and arduous to you. Remember that the story about the journey and its seeming qualities can be taken over by ego. When you think about emerging out of illusion with all of your divine siblings, how does it feel? Is there any disquiet? Any hopelessness? Any sense of burden?

There’s your laser pointer directly on where you are allowing ego’s influence. Egoic thoughts suggest themselves to you in many different forms, and you are accustomed to giving them a home in many different ways, but you are recognizing where you invite ego’s influence now, and as you see this, it becomes very clear to see through egoic thought as the nothingness it is.

You are able to see through egoic thought when you know there is something else there for you. You throw your crutch away when you recognize that you can walk perfectly well without it. The something else is actually the only thing there is, and it can power everything with no need for the misconceptions invented by ego.

That’s why you don’t have to fear any future. With the something-only that is onyour side, that is you entirely–love and light–you are capable of passing through any illusion. You are capable of allowing all of the illusions to dissolve. What you are can do anything, and you come to see this as you allow the dissolution of what you aren’t.

Fear is ego’s tool, and you don’t need this tool. It is very helpful to notice when you allow fear’s influence, when you feel tension of any kind. It is very important to recognize that the experience of fear is entirely in your hands. It’s self-delivered. It’s a state you choose for yourself. Nothing outside of you scares you. It only seems that way because you have been busy making illusions. 

Fear becomes very useful when you recognize it as the signal that you have believed a lie, and when you have the willingness to allow the lies to be exposed and to dissolve. Fear is always the signal that you are looking at an illusion as if it is real. Find and stay in your willingness to know what is Real, and there is your appropriate response to fear.

Ego paints terrifying pictures of the future. If you’re familiar with Bob Ross, ego can be like a scary version of his painting show: “And then we’re going to put a lovely dot of death right here, a fluffy mass of suffering over here, and now let’s use our palette knife to make beautiful conflict with just a touch of betrayal over here.” If you catch ego on the very first brushstroke, it’s much easier to subside back into what you Are, into what everyone else Is, and to allow that to direct the unfolding of your day. Love can paint the picture, too, and you know who is painting by how you feel.

One of ego’s top themes is punishment. If you are focusing on a possible negative outcome for yourself, you are focusing upon a punishing outcome, and this is based on your belief that you deserve punishment. Your belief that you deserve punishment will stay hidden when you are focusing upon the scramble to avoid negative outcomes. Simply take a moment. When ego has taken you on a ride of envisioning a negative outcome, of painting that picture, stop and acknowledge this: I must believe that I deserve punishment. I am willing to allow this belief to go now. Looking at the level of belief is always a very high-level looking, and it will always serve you and All to stop and look in this way. 

Now let’s look at the one you perceive as other guy, and let’s look very gently. Ego has two uses for other guy in its paintings. Other guy will either be used as a contrast to your suffering or as one deserving of suffering or likely to experience suffering. Remember that there is only One of us, and other guy, no matter how realistically he is pictured in an illusion of walking amongst many bodies (with only one of them–yours–as being not other), is not separate from all of us. Ego needs you to see him as other, though. All of the attraction of illusion depends upon seeing other guy as separate.

When you catch a story about a future outcome unfolding in your mind, you can stop. If you are perfectly safe in the Now, and you are, there is no need to project any separate self into a future. You can always return your awareness to the immutable, the Here, the Now. If there is any future to be arranged, this force can arrange it for you. As you make a habit of returning your attention here, it becomes natural to allow everything to be taken care of for you.

We are completely at ease because everything is taken care of for us, provided for us. We could never be anything other than fully supported, fully guided, and fully provided for, and it is our delight to show you that the same has always been true of you. You have only been dreaming otherwise, and we call you gently into your awakening.