[acimlessons_list] Lesson 231 - August 19

Wed Aug 18 06:43:46 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 231 - August 19

"Father, I will but to remember You."

PRACTICE SUMMARY 

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.

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

COMMENTARY

This lesson is talking about our will. When the Course uses the word "will"
in this way, it is talking about a fundamental, unchanging part of us, the
permanently fixed goal of our Self. It isn't talking about our wishes and
our whims, but our <will>. Jesus speaks to us directly in the second
paragraph and says, "This is your will, my brother" (2:1). It is a will we
share with Him, and also with God our Father.

What is our will? To remember God; to know His Love. And that is all. Not
many of us, as we began reading this Course, would have answered the
question, "What do you want out of life?" with the words, "To remember God
and know His Love." A lot of us probably don't feel those words fit us even
now. The lesson recognizes that: "Perhaps I think I seek for something else"
(1:2).

What is the "something else" you are seeking? It might be wealth, or fame.
It might be some form of worldly security. It might be romance. It might be
hot sex. Or a good time. Or a quiet family life, in the tradition of the
American dream. We've called it by many names. We <think> these things are
what we are seeking for. Yet no matter what we may think, these things are
not what we truly will for ourselves. They are all forms, forms that we
believe will give us something. It isn't the form we are really seeking, it
is the content, it is what we believe these things offer to us.

And what is that? Inner peace. Satisfaction. A sense of completion and
wholeness. A sense of worth. An inner knowing that we are essentially good;
loveable and loving. A feeling of belonging, of being valuable. Ultimately
these things come only from remembering God and knowing His Love. They are
something inside of us, not something outside of us. Only when we remember
the truth about ourselves, only when we remember our connectedness to Love
Itself, will we find what we are seeking. And we will find that we <are>
what we have been seeking, and always have been.

"To remember Him is Heaven. This we seek. And only this is what it will be
given us to find" (2:3-5). Remembering God is the <only> thing I am really
looking for. Let me then, today, spend time, morning and evening, reminding
myself of this fact: "Father, I will but to remember You." Let me stop
briefly every hour to recall it to my mind. And each time I find myself
thinking that I want "something else," let me gently correct myself:
Remembering God is all I want.

WHAT IS SALVATION? (Part 1)

To begin with, it will help to realize that the Course does not attach the
same meaning to this word as does traditional religion. "Salvation" carries,
for most of us, the connotation of some impending disaster from which we are
"saved." From hell, for instance. From some terrible punishment. From the
consequences of our wrong-doing. The picture often used in traditional
Christianity is of a drowning man being thrown a life-preserver; "Throw out
the life-line," the old Gospel hymn says. The Course directly refutes this
idea:

"Your Self does not need salvation, but your mind needs to learn what
salvation is. You are not saved <from> anything, but you are saved <for>
glory" (T-11.IV.1:3,4).

Salvation in the Course <is> a "life preserver," but not in the same sense.
It does not save us from death; it preserves us in life. It is a guarantee
that death will never touch us: "Salvation is a promise, made by God, that
you would find your way to Him at last" (1:1). We are not in danger of
destruction, never have been, never will be. The Course's version of
salvation does not reverse a disaster; it prevents the disaster from ever
happening.

Before time began, God made His promise, a promise that "cannot but be kept"
(1:2). That promise guaranteed that time, and all the mess we appear to have
made in time, would have an end, and ultimately be without any effect at
all. It guaranteed that life cannot end, that holiness cannot become sin,
that Heaven cannot become hell. It guaranteed that there could never be more
than an <illusion> of separation and a <dream> of suffering and death. It
promised that the ego could never become real, that no will independent of
God could ever arise. It defined the end from the beginning, and made it
perfectly secure. We <will> find our way to God at last, because God has
promised that it will be so.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 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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