[acimlessons_list] Lesson 227 - August 15

[Susan Carrier]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 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 227 - August 15

"This is my holy instant of release."

PRACTICE SUMMARY (See Part II Practice Summary, and also Part II
Introduction)

COMMENTARY

Today's lesson is another reminder that these practice times are meant to be
holy instants for us. Not every one will be a dramatic experience of
wordless bliss, of course. Remember that simply being willing to turn your
mind to God can be considered a holy instant, whether or not you consciously
experience anything special. The seminal holy instant, from which the Course
sprang, was simply a time when Bill Thetford said, "There must be another
way," and Helen replied, "I'll help you find it." The mental shift into
alignment with God's purpose is what really counts. If we faithfully
practice, the direct experience of truth spoken of in the Workbook will
come, not by our efforts, but by God's grace, when we are ready to receive
it.

Consider the effect it has on our mind to focus on today's idea, "This is my
holy instant of release," and then to sit in quiet stillness, open and
receptive to whatever is given to us. We should enter each such time
expectantly, waiting to hear what God's Voice will speak.

I am already free; now, today. My thought of separation had no effect on my
reality, so the imprisonment I have imagined never happened. "Nothing I
thought apart from You exists" (1:3). How wonderful to know that the
thoughts I believed were apart from God don't exist! How healing it is to
give them up, lay them down at the feet of truth, and to have them "removed
forever from my mind" (1:5). This is the healing process of the Course: to
take each thought that seems to express a will separate from God's, and
bring it into this Presence to be removed from my mind, with God's own
assurance that it has affected nothing. I am still His Son.

This is how my mind is restored to me. This is how my awareness of my
Identity is returned to my awareness.

WHAT IS FORGIVENESS? (Part 7)

Paragraph 4. "Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does
nothing" (4:1). If we can understand these first few sentences we will have
a clear grasp of what forgiveness really is. The words, "on the other hand,"
refer to the preceding two paragraphs which described an unforgiving
thought, especially to 3:1: "An unforgiving thought does many things."
Forgiveness, on the other hand, does nothing. Unforgiveness is highly
active, anxiously trying to make things fit into its picture of reality;
forgiveness does nothing. It does not rush to interpret or to attempt to
understand. It lets things be as they are.

Notice once again the heavy emphasis on stillness and quiet. The practice of
the holy instant, as the practice of forgiveness, is practice at being
still, being quiet, doing nothing. The product of the ego's training, our
minds are habitually active, constantly working. We need <practice> at being
still and doing nothing. It takes a lot of practice to break the habit of
frantic activity and form a new habit of being still and quiet.

One trick of the ego I notice, frequently, is that it will try to make me
guilty about being still and quiet! When I try to take ten minutes to sit in
stillness, my ego floods my mind with thoughts of what I ought to be doing
instead.

The mental state in which forgiveness occurs is one in which we simply allow
all of reality to be as it is, without judging anything. "It offends no
aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearances it likes" (4:2). The
appearance my ego usually likes is some form of, "I am right and they are
wrong." Or, "I am good and they are bad." Or simply, "I am better than
he/she is." Even more simply, "I am not like him/her." All of these thoughts
share one theme: I am different from others, and therefore separate from
them. Any such thought is twisting reality, because the reality is that we
are the same, we are equal, we are one. Forgiveness stills such thoughts and
abandons all efforts to mash reality into a "more desirable" shape.

"It merely looks, and waits, and judges not." It does not deny what it sees,
but it puts no interpretation on it. It waits to be told the meaning by the
Holy Spirit. "My mate is having an affair." Forgiveness looks, and waits,
and judges not. "My child is sick." Forgiveness looks, and waits, and judges
not. "My boss just fired me." It looks, and waits, and judges not. We are so
quick to think we know what things mean! And we are wrong. We do not know.
We leap to an understanding based on separation, and such understandings
understand nothing.

The most salutary thing we can do when any such upsetting event occurs in
our lives is--nothing. Simply to let our minds become still and quiet, and
to open ourselves to the healing light of the Holy Spirit. To seek a holy
instant. Let this become the ingrained habit of our lives, and we will see
the world in an entirely different way, and Love will flow though us to
bring healing instead of hurt to every situation.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 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)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ The Workbook Commentaries are Copyright 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003 by The 
+ Circle of Atonement, P.O. Box 4238,
+ W. Sedona, AZ 86340.
+ All rights reserved.
+
+ Please notify us of any intent to use them beyond the scope of this 
+ e-mail list; write to info at circleofa.com.
+
+ WWW: <http://www.circleofa.com/>
+ Email: <info at circleofa.com>
+ Back Issues Lesson Archive: <http://www.circleofa.com/curwkbk.html>
+ or <http://five.pairlist.net/pipermail/acimlessons_list/>, click "Date"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To unsubscribe from ACIMLESSONS_LIST send email to
acimlessons_list-request at circleofa.com with "unsubscribe" as the subject

To unsubscribe from ACIMWKBK_LIST send email to
acimwkbk_list-request at circleofa.com with "unsubscribe" as the subject

For more information about unsubscribing, subscribing, and changing settings
for your subscription, send an e-mail message to the same address with the
word "help" as the subject. You can also change your subscription options by
visiting the list website:
<http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/acimlessons_list> OR
<http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/acimwkbk_list>
Scroll to the bottom to change your personal options. 
____________________________________________

Tell your friends to subscribe. They can simply send an e-mail message to
<acimwkbk_list-request at circleofa.com> with the word "subscribe" in the
subject, changing "acimwkbk" to "acimlessons" if they want only the
commentaries, without member discussion.
_______________________________________________

Please support the Workbook commentaries! Make a donation to the Circle:
<https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=info%40circleofa.com&item_name=donat
ion+to+support+Workbook+commentaries&image_url=http%3A//www.circleofa.coion+
to+support+Workbook+m/images/main_title.gif&return=http%3A//www.circleofa.co
m&cancel_return=http%3A//www.circleofa.com&cn=Note+to+the+Circle&tax=0&curre
ncy_code=USD>
(If clicking the above link does not work, try copying it and pasting it
into the address field of your web browser, and clicking on "Go".)
_______________________________________________

Portions from Clarification of Terms, Copyright 1975, Psychotherapy:
Purpose, Process and Practice, (c) 1976, The Song of Prayer, (c) 1978, are
copyrighted by The Foundation for "A Course in Miracles," 41397 Buecking
Drive, Temecula, CA 92590.