[acimlessons_list] Review VI, Lesson 217 - August 5

Wed Aug 4 07:03:12 EDT 2004

Review VI, Lesson 217 - August 5

"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."

"It can be but my gratitude I earn."

"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

REVIEW VI

PURPOSE: To carefully review the last 20 lessons, each of which contains
understood, practiced, accepted and applied without exception.

MORNING/EVENING QUIET TIME: 15 minutes--at least

* Repeat: "I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."

* Close eyes and relinquish all that clutters the mind; forget all you
thought you knew. Give the time to the Holy Spirit, your Teacher. If you
notice an idle thought, immediately deny its hold, assuring your mind that
you do not want it. Then let it be given up and replaced with today's idea.
Say: "This thought I do not want. I choose instead (today's idea)."

REMARKS: We are attempting to go beyond special forms of practice because we
are attempting a quicker pace and shorter path to our goal.

HOURLY REMEMBRANCE: Repeat: "I am not a body. I am free. For I am still
as God created me."

FREQUENT REMINDER: as often as possible, as often as you can. Repeat: "I am
not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."

RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION: permit no idle thought to go unchallenged. If you
are tempted by an idle thought, immediately deny its hold, assuring your
mind that you do not want it. Then let it be given up and replaced with
today's idea. Say: "This thought I do not want. I choose instead (today's
idea)."

COMMENTARY
The salvation described by the Course is unique in the way it combines total
responsibility for our own salvation with total dependence on God. My Self
is what "saves" me, yet that Self is discovered only by recognizing that
what I am is not any result of my own action, but the gift of God in
creation. 

There is a line in the Text that says, "Give thanks to every part of you
that you have taught how to remember you" (T-13.VII.17:8). The gratitude we
feel as we begin to awaken to what we are is due to the Self that we are
discovering. I am the one who gives thanks; I am also the One to  Whom
thanks are being given.

It is very hard to understand all this until you begin to experience it. I
vividly recall one particular time in which it seemed to come to crystal
clarity for me, for a few moments at least. I became aware of a loving part
of myself that was continually moving me and motivating me in the direction
of inner peace and Self acceptance. It was something that had always been
there, more than a part of me, the reality of myself. I was simultaneously
aware of another part of my mind that had begun to open up to that love, and
in that moment, I felt a deep and unexpressible gratitude to myself for
being willing to receive that love. I was aware both of being the giver of
the love and the receiver of it, and in that moment the little self I had
always thought was me felt swallowed up in this much larger, constantly
moving, tide of love.  

This peculiar gratitude to my Self can find expression in many little ways.
Sometimes when I have taken the time for a quiet meditation, one in which I
feel strongly renewed, I find the gratitude welling up, and I say, "Thank
you." And I am not sure whether I am thanking God or myself. I am grateful
to myself for having readied myself to receive this Course. I am thankful to
myself for reading it, and continuing to study it and to apply it. When a
line from the Course pops into my head at just the right moment, I can thank
my Self for it.  The Course teaches that we all are already awake; the truth
lives untarnished in our right mind. And it is this right mind, this Self
that is the only part of us that has reality in truth, which is teaching us
and calling us home. This right mind is the home of the Holy Spirit; He is
part of us as well as part of God. His Voice is the Voice for God, yet it is
also the Voice of my Self. It is my Self that brought the Course into the
world. It is my Self that drew me to it. It is my Self that is bringing me
to awareness. Everything that nudges me in the right direction is a gift
from my Self. Let me be grateful to my Self today. 

Let me recognize that I am deserving of my own gratitude. Instead of being
annoyed with myself, impatient with myself, harsh on myself, discouraged
with myself, or untrusting of myself, let me offer myself my own gratitude.
And let me realize that my own gratitude is all I need and want. Let me
understand that when I have learned fully to be completely grateful to my
Self for what I am, I will have completed the journey, and will have
learned, at the same time, to be fully appreciative and grateful to God for
the gift He has given me: my Self.

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+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
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