[acimlessons_list] *Lesson 220*--August --August 8

[Allen Watson]

    COMMENTARIES ON LESSONS FROM THE WORKBOOK OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
    by Allen Watson, with Practice Summaries by Robert Perry
    The Circle of Atonement--Visit our website at <http://www.circleofa.com>

*Lesson 220*--August 8

"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."(200) "There
is no peace except the peace of God.""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
the whole curriculum and is therefore sufficient for salvation, if
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*

To see ourselves as bodies is to be in conflict. Peace can be found only in
God. Searching for peace in the realm of the physical is doomed to failure,
because the body is an expression of conflict.

The prayer in this review lesson is about not wandering from "the way of
peace." What might that mean? Obviously, it refers to any unpeaceful state
of mind, any thought of antagonism, or anger, or attack, or hatred. The
Course calls us to mental vigilance, watching our thoughts for anything that
opposes peace, and, as soon as such a thought is detected, bringing it to
the presence of the Holy Spirit for healing. We are told to think along
these lines: "This is not what I want. I want the peace of God." So when we
sense our thoughts moving into conflict mode, we respond. Perhaps we pray,
"Let me not wander from the way of peace."

Wandering from the way of peace, however, includes more than overt attack.
The ego can disguise attack very subtly; indeed the Course sees even our
special love relationships, our false forgiveness, and our ego's attempts at
empathy as veiled attacks. If there is no peace except God's peace, then to
seek for peace in some other way is really a hidden attachment to attack. If
there is only one road to my destination, and I choose not to follow the
road, I am choosing my destination's opposite. It is really seeking peace
through war, which is impossible. The ego, for instance, often seeks for
illusory peace through force, attempting to physically or mentally overpower
the situation. We cannot find peace by attempting to browbeat the world into
submission. On any such road, we are not moving toward peace; we are lost.

The way to God's peace is through following the Holy Spirit, "Him Who leads
me home." When we try to solve our problems on our own, we are not following
the way to peace:

The ego always tries to preserve conflict. It is very ingenious in devising
ways that seem to diminish conflict, because it does not want you to find
conflict so intolerable that you will insist on giving it up
(T-7.VIII.2:2-3).

Trying to use our own ingenuity to resolve conflict, then, is another way we
wander from the true road to peace.

When conflict seems to arise today, let me remember my lesson, that there is
no peace except the peace of God. Let me instantly seek peace, but not in my
own way. Let me turn to the Holy Spirit within and ask His direction.

When you feel the holiness of your relationship is threatened by anything,
stop instantly and offer the Holy Spirit your willingness, in spite of fear,
to let Him exchange this instant for the holy one you would rather have. He
will never fail in this (T-18.V.6:1-2).
    COMMENTARIES ON LESSONS FROM THE WORKBOOK OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
    by Allen Watson, with Practice Summaries by Robert Perry
    The Circle of Atonement--Visit our website at <http://www.circleofa.com>

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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
+ Available in book format from The Circle
+ of Atonement (Vol. 1 reprint due soon, write us for info)
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Portions from Clarification of Terms (c) Copyright 1975, Psychotherapy:
Purpose, Process and Practice, (c) 1976, The Song of Prayer, (c) 1978, are
used by permission of the copyright holder, The Foundation for "A Course in
Miracles," 41397 Buecking Drive, Temecula, CA 92590.


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