[acimlessons_list] Lesson 241 - August 29

Sat Aug 28 09:31:59 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 <http://www.circleofa.com/>
>
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 Lesson 241 - August  29

"This holy instant is salvation come."

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

COMMENTARY

When the lesson says that today "is a time of special celebration" (1:2), I
rather suspect it is using the word "special" in the same way it uses it in
one place in the Text, where Jesus says, "All my brothers are special"
(T-1.V.3:6). Today is special because, in the holy instant, salvation has
already come. And yet, "You can claim the holy instant any time and anywhere
you want it" (T-15.IV.4:4). Whenever you claim the holy instant, it is a
special time! A day of joy!

This is just like telling a child that they can have Christmas every day if
they want it. And indeed the Course tells us exactly that, in the section
titled "The Time of Rebirth," written at Christmas. It tells us that
Christmas is the time of Christ, and the time of Christ is the holy instant
(T-15.X.2:1); and then it tells us, "It is in your power to make the time of
Christ be now" (T-15.X.4:1).

And so, why not today? Why not every day? Why not now? Any time I want to, I
can make it a time "when sorrows pass away and pain is gone" (1:4). The
practice of the holy instant offers me this. Within my mind I can, at any
instant, open a window onto the real world, and breath its fragrant
atmosphere. I can experience a united world, drawn together by my
forgiveness.

I do not yet find that I experience bliss the moment I close my eyes and
say, "This holy instant is salvation come." The reality I have experienced,
from time to time, is always here; I am certain of that. Yet my awareness of
it remains spotty. (<Very> spotty!) But once you have tasted it, and in that
instant <known> that what you are experiencing is eternal, you can never
fully doubt its eternal presence. There are still many barriers blocking my
awareness of it. I am still holding on to quite a few of those barriers. My
grievances are still, most of the time, hiding the Light of the world from
me. But it is there. My forgiveness can release it (1:7-2:1).

Every time I pause to remember, every time I attempt to claim the holy
instant, another barrier falls, another drop of willingness is added to my
reservoir. What better way could I possibly spend my time? As Lesson 127
said (see paragraphs 7 and 8), "There is no better use for time than this."

One aside: Notice that in 1:8, Jesus speaks of our forgiving <him>. Let me
examine myself today, to see if there is something I still hold against him;
something in him I mistrust; some way in which I still fear him, or blame
him, or resent him. Even if I respect him as my teacher, it is very easy to
feel resentful of one's teachers.

WHAT IS THE WORLD? (Part 1)

The first sentence answers the question: "The world is false perception"
(1:1). The rest of the page is the explanation of this summary statement.
Some of us, on first reading the Course, think that perhaps the Course is
not saying that the world is unreal, but that our perception of it is false.
Yet here, quite clearly, that the world and false perception are the same
thing. The world is an hallucination; we are perceiving something that isn't
there.

In my perception, "I" am inside my head, looking out at a world that is not
me. Separate. And that is simply not the truth. There is no world outside my
mind (T-18.VI.1:1; 12.III.6:7). "What is projected out, and seems to be
external to the mind, is not outside at all" (T-26.VII.4:9).

The world was "born of error" and it has not left our minds which sourced it
(1:2). As the Course so often says, "Ideas leave not their source." The
world is the mistaken idea of separation (1:4) in our minds, and it has
never left our minds. When our mind (the one mind we all share) no longer
cherishes the idea of separation, the world which represents that idea will
simply disappear.

Many who were raised in a religious tradition which taught that God created
the world have gone through a lot of distress and confusion, wondering how
God could ever have created such a mess! If He was responsible for this, we
weren't sure we wanted to know Him. What a relief it is to realize that He
did <not> create it; it was born of the error of our mind, from our
mistakenly entertaining the idea of separation. The misery of this world
only reflects the misery brought to our mind by the thought of separation.
It is as if we wondered, "What if we were separate?", and were instantly
given a virtual reality tour of what would result.

An early lesson said, "I can escape from this world by giving up attack
thoughts" (Lesson 55, reviewing Lesson 23). The thought is the same. Heal
the attack thoughts, the thoughts of separation which I still cherish, and I
can leave the world behind. The Course is helping us to do just that; to let
our attack thoughts go, and solve the problems of the world at their source.

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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
+ Available in book format from The Circle
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