[acimlessons_list] Lesson 340 - December 6

Sun Dec 5 10:42:42 EST 2004

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+ 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 340 - December 6

"I can be free of suffering today."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

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

COMMENTARY

The Workbook lessons from 221 on are meant to be used as brief introductions
to holy instants of direct experience of the truth. As the Introduction to
Part II of the Workbook says, "Now we attempt to let the exercise be merely
a beginning. For we wait in quiet expectation for our God and Father." "We
say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself,
as He has promised." "We say the words of invitation that His Voice
suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us." The "words of invitation"
seem to refer to the prayers in each lesson. The idea is that we read the
lesson over and perhaps think on them a minute or two. Then, we repeat the
prayer that invites God to join us. More and more, as I have worked with
these lessons, I have found increasing benefit from really focusing on these
prayers, and making them very personal. Then we wait, quietly, until we are
aware of God's presence with us. That is the whole purpose of the exercises.

"I can be free of suffering today."

So let me remind myself of this. Freedom from suffering is my choice. I have
the option, today, to be free. As I listen to God's Voice directing me to
find Christ's vision through forgiveness, I will be free forever from all
suffering (1:4). Let me think on that a moment, pray the prayer given here,
and then sit quietly and wait, listening, opening my mind to that vision.

I do not live in that vision yet, or only sporadically. To me it seems I
have some way to go. So I wait. I make my mind, empty, available to Him and
ask Him to fill me with this vision and to enlarge it in my mind.

"I was born into this world but to achieve this day, and what it holds in
joy and freedom for Your holy Son and for the world he made..." (1:6).

Achieving Christ's vision fully is all that I am here for; I was born for
this. Perhaps today! I open myself to it, I loose my mind from all lesser
thoughts and offer it to You. In this holy instant I can find that release.
Perhaps it won't last more than a few minutes, a few seconds. Perhaps it
will lodge in my mind and stay with me all through the day. Salvation is
already accomplished, and I can tap in to that awareness right now. Even if
I forget in ten minutes, even if I "lose" the awareness, the memory will
remain and will sustain me, transforming my day from what it would have been
had I not spent these moments with You. So I give myself to this time, this
remembering.

We all will remember. God will gather us all to Himself, and together we
shall all awake in Heaven in the Heart of Love (2:5-6). Take heart, my soul!
The outcome is as inevitable as God. The way may seem long at times, but the
ending is sure, and no anxiety need touch my heart. I am content in this
moment simply to be with You. There is nothing more that I need. "There is
no room for anything but joy and thanks today" (2:3), and only these will I
welcome into my holy mind.

WHAT IS THE EGO? (Part 10)

W-pII.12.5:2

"And peace will be restored forever to the holy minds which God created as
His Son, His dwelling place, His joy, His love, completely His, completely
one with Him."

How is it that simple forgiveness can do this? The guilt and fear induced by
our belief in the ego's reality is the cause of all our suffering. It is our
mad wish to be a separated self that has caused us to see God, and all the
universe, as our enemies, and filled us with nightmares of punishment.
Forgiveness shows us that what we think we did to ourselves has not
occurred. There is no cause for our guilt. Forgiveness releases us from the
dread of punishment, and brings us to realize that our oneness with God is
undisturbed. We are still "His dwelling place, His joy, His love, completely
His, completely one with Him." And in that knowledge, peace is restored
forever.

When forgiveness washes over us, we realize that, "I can be free of
suffering today" (Lesson 340). It is the ego thought in our mind that paints
unrest over the eternal calm of our mind as God created it. Letting go of
that thought, even for an instant, brings immediate peace. The thought of
separation, of an independent identity, was the original mistake:

"That one error, which brought truth to illusion, infinity to time, and life
to death, was all you ever made. Your whole world rests upon it. Everything
you see reflects it...You do not realize the magnitude of that one error. It
was so vast and so completely incredible that from it a world of total
unreality <had> to emerge" (T-18.I.4:4-5:3).

Forgiveness shows us that what we think we have done has no real
consequence. It removes the barriers to our awareness of God. That terrible
mistake, upon which our whole world rests, was inconsequential; our union
with God remains forever uninterrupted. We rest, now and ever, in His peace.

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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 by end of 2004, write us for info)
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