[acimlessons_list] Lesson 224 - August 12

Wed Aug 11 06:24:09 EDT 2004

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

Lesson 224 - August 12

"God is my Father, and He loves His Son."

PRACTICE SUMMARY - Part II

Purpose: To take the last few steps to God. To wait for Him to take the
final step.

Morning/Evening Quiet Time: as long as needed.

Read the written lesson.

Use idea and prayer to introduce time of quiet. Do not depend on the words.
Use them as a simple invitation to God to come to you.

Sit silently and wait for God. Wait in quiet expectancy for Him to reveal
Himself to you. Seek only direct, deep, wordless experience of Him. Be
certain of His coming, and unafraid. For He has promised that when you
invite Him, He will come. You ask only that He keep His ancient promise,
which He wills to keep. These times are your gift to Him.

Hourly Remembrance: Do not forget.

Give thanks to God that He has remained with you and will always be there to
answer your call to Him.

Frequent Reminder: As often as possible, even every minute.

Remember the idea. Dwell with God, let Him shine on you.

Response To Temptation: When you are tempted to forget your goal.

Use idea as a call to God and all temptation will disappear.

Reading: preceding one of the day's moments of practice.

Slowly read "What is...?" section.

Think about it a while.

Overall Remarks: Now, in this final part of the year that you and Jesus have
spent together, you begin to reach the goal of practicing and of the course.
Jesus is so close that you cannot fail. You have come far along the road. Do
not look back. Fix you eyes on the journey's end. You could not have come
this far without realizing that you want to know God. And this is all He
requires to come to you.

COMMENTARY

These lessons are helping us remember who we are: God's Son. Who we are is
an Identity that is far beyond anything we can imagine, "so lofty...that
Heaven looks to It to give it light" (1:1). In Lesson 221 we were silently
waiting for God "speak to us of what we are" (W-pII.221.2:6). In 222, we
learned that what we are exists in an environment of God. In 223, we
recognized that we were not separate, but existed entirely in union with
God. And now, we remember our true Identity as His Son. Our Identity "is
illusion's end. It is the truth" (W-pII.224.1:6-7).

The truth of what we are is the end of all illusions. Or, the flip side, a
mistake about what we are is the source of all illusions. We have forgotten
it, but in these times of quiet with God, we ask Him to remind us, to reveal
that Identity to us. We are "lofty, sinless, glorious and great, wholly
beneficent and free from guilt" (1:1). Reading these words, notice how our
conscious minds instantly question it, instantly recoil from the audacity of
saying such things. It only shows how thoroughly we have deceived ourselves,
how well we have learned our own lies. Yet something within, on hearing
these words, begins to sing. Something within recognizes the melody of
Heaven and starts humming along with it. Listen to that humming. Tune in on
it. It is your Self, responding to God's Call. Say it! "God IS my Father,
and He LOVES His Son."

WHAT IS FORGIVENESS? (Part 4)

The unforgiving thought "protects projection" (W-pII.1.2:3). Our minds,
tormented with their own guilt, have projected the blame for our condition
outside ourselves. We have found a scapegoat, as Adam did with Eve: "The
woman gave me the fruit to eat. It was her fault." And so we cling to our
unforgiveness, we <want> to find blame in the other, because to forgive, to
let it go, would be to open the closet door that hides our guilt.

The more we cling to unforgiveness, the more we blind ourselves. The more
solid our illusory projections seem to be, until we think it would be
impossible to see in any other way. The distortions we impose on reality
become "more veiled and more obscure" (2:3). Our self-deceptions become
harder and harder to see through, "less easily accessible to doubt." All we
are being asked to do is to doubt them, to question our projections, to
listen to a little reason. Unforgiveness blocks the way to this and tightens
our own chains.

We see guilt in others because we <want> to see it there, and we want to see
it there because it keeps us from seeing guilt in our own minds. Yet seeing
the guilt in ourselves is the only way we can have it healed. If we deny we
are wounded we will not seek the remedy. If we deny our own guilt and
project it onto others, we will not bring ourselves into the healing
Presence within, which is the only place it can be undone. If our mind is
closed, if we are not willing to doubt our version of things, we are
shutting the door to our own healing. Only in opening our mind, in loosening
our determined grasp on finding others to be wrong, in allowing that "there
must be a better way" (T-2.III.3:6), can we find our own release.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
+ Available in book format from The Circle
+ of Atonement (Vol. 1 reprint due by end of 2004, write us for info)
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