[acimlessons_list] Lesson 355 - December 21

Mon Dec 20 06:41:37 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 355 - December 21

"There is no end to all the peace and joy, 
And all the miracles that I will give, 
When I accept God's Word. Why not today?"

PRACTICE SUMMARY

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

COMMENTARY

"God's Word," to me, is speaking here of what Jesus, in the Course, is
telling me about my own Identity. It is the truth about what I am. "It is
You I choose, and my Identity along with You. Your Son would be Himself, and
know You as his Father and Creator, and his Love" (1:7-8).

A Christian lecturer who inspired me years ago, Major Ian Thomas, used to
say that man's purpose, my  purpose as an individual, is to be "the human
vehicle of the divine content." That is what I am here for. Christ wants to
be Himself in me , in the form of me. I have no other reason for being here,
although the ego thinks I am here to forget God.

The Course teaches that the ego made the world and the body as an attack
against God. It wants to use the world to forget  God. The Holy Spirit wants
to use it as a vehicle to remember  God. There is no real purpose to
anything except one of those two.

I am here, today as always, to reflect God's Love. I am here to see
innocence. I am here to "look on everyone as brother, and perceive all
things as kindly and as good." (W-pII.14.3:4). I am here to bless my
brothers and to ask them to share my peace and joy.

"Why not today?" (Lesson Title) Why should I wait? These are the questions
the lesson asks.

"I am sure my treasure waits for me, and I need but reach out my hand to
find it. Even now my fingers touch it. It is very close. I need not wait an
instant more to be at peace forever" (1:3-6).

There is no answer to why we wait, because there are no reasons to wait. Nor
has there ever been a reason. All there is to do in response is to let the
constriction in our hearts unknot, to quash the resistance to the flow of
Love, and to open our hearts fully to every living thing. To let ourselves
be Love; to let Love be us. To desist from the belief that we are anything
else but Love.

The resistance that feels so great, like a stone wall, is nothing more than
a cloud, unable to stop a feather. Only my belief in its impenetrability
makes it a barrier, like an elephant staked to a tiny peg in the ground,
believing it cannot move because it has been trained to think it is chained
to a tree. We think we are without love; we believe we are unloving. We
think the ego stands like a granite battlement between us and God, keeping
Him out.

The ego is a cloud. It could not stop a ping pong ball. It is totally
without strength to resist the Love of God, and it cannot and will not
resist. God's Love stands at the end of time, having already won. Oh, my
heart! Open to that love today! Receive it; give it. Receive it by giving
it, and give it by receiving it. See it everywhere for it is everywhere, in
everyone.

WHAT AM I? (Part 5)

W-pII.14.3:1-4

What is "our function," spoken of at the end of Paragraph 2? "We are the
bringers of salvation" (3:1). Have I really considered that this is <my>
function? Have I begun to realize that, each day as I live my life, this is
what I am really living for--to bring salvation to the world? We are not
talking here about rescuing people; we are talking about seeing them as God
created them, and seeing them that way so clearly and so strongly that our
vision of them begins to open <their> eyes to the same thing. We are talking
about holding such an unambiguous picture of their innocence that they can
see their own innocence reflected from us.

"We accept our part as saviors of the world, which through our joint
forgiveness is redeemed" (3:2). We save the world by forgiving it. And we
exercise this forgiveness as <joint> forgiveness, along with Jesus. We join
with him in lifting guilt and blame from each person we interact with. This
is how the world is "redeemed," bought back from its slavery to guilt and
fear.

"And this, our gift, is therefore given us" (3:3). Once again the
oft-repeated theme: we receive forgiveness as we give it.

"We look on everyone as brother, and perceive all things as kindly and as
good" (1:4). This is the vision of a savior. This is how a savior sees
things. To see everyone as brother is to see them as our equal, sharing in
the guiltlessness of God's creation. To see all things as kindly is to
realize that even what appears to be attack does not make the "attacker"
unkind; behind the fear that drives the apparent attack is still a kind and
gentle heart. Some of us, perhaps, have begun to realize this about
ourselves and about others. We acknowledge that we have made mistakes, and
that we have acted unlovingly, and yet we know that underneath that mask of
anger and selfishness our hearts are kind. We do not want to hurt but we
feel driven to it by circumstance, it seems the only way we can survive.
That is the ego's lie to us, that attack is necessary for survival. The
Course asks us:

"Do you not think the world needs peace as much as you do? Do you not want
to give it to the world as much as you want to receive it? For unless you
do, you will not receive it. If you want to have it of me, you must give it.
Healing does not come from anyone else" (T-8.IV.4:1-5).

"There is no living thing that does not share the universal Will that it be
whole" (T-31.I.9:1).

Our path to salvation lies in coming to realize that all livings things
share the universal Will to be whole, that everyone wants peace just as we
do, and that, beneath all the masks we wear so faithfully, what we are, all
of us, is Love. 

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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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