[acimlessons_list] Lesson 360--December 26

[Allen Watson]

Lesson 360

"Peace be to me, the holy Son of God.
Peace to my brother, who is one with me.
Let all the world be blessed with peace through us."

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

COMMENTARY

This is for all practical purposes the last "regular" lesson of the
Workbook. The last five days of the year will be spent on a single
lesson, which gives us an idea of how every day can be spent by a Course
"graduate," if we can use that term. This final lesson, then, sums up
and concludes the practice of the Workbook.

Peace be to me; peace be to my brother; peace be to all the world
through us. That is one way of summarizing what the Course is all about:
finding peace within ourselves, sharing that peace with another, and
together sharing it with all the world. Finding it within ourselves is
the basis. Sharing it with another confirms it within us, and the
relationship gives us a microcosm in which to learn to extend that
peace. Having learned to share together, we then extend the peace to all
the world.

"Father, it is Your peace that I would give, receiving it of you" (1:1).

The peace we receive and give is God's peace. It is the peace that comes
of knowing we are God's creation: "In holiness were we created, and in
holiness do we remain" (1:5). "I am Your Son, forever just as You
created me, for the Great Rays remain forever still and undisturbed
within me" (1:2). Nothing God placed in me in creation has been lost.
God, eternally at peace, extended Himself to create me, and His peace
extended into me and included me in its stillness. That stillness always
exists. There is a place in you, and in me, that is at perfect peace
always. We can find that peace at any instant we choose to do so. To
find it all we need do is to be still, to stop our interference. The
peace is always there.

"I would reach to them [the Great Rays] in silence and in certainty, for
nowhere else can certainty be found. Peace be to me, and peace to all
the world" (1:3-4). This morning, close your eyes for a time--for as
long as it takes. Let the thoughts that have been occupying your mind
just float away, detached. Do not push them away; do not hold on to
them. Just let them go, and try to become aware of that place within
yourself that is always at peace. Do not strive to find it; let it find
you. Simply be still. Simply make yourself receptive to the peace and it
will appear, because it is always there. Sit in silence. If a noise
comes to your attention, don't let your mind "stick" to it. You have no
other purpose than to be still. You have no other goal right now but to
say, "Peace be to me."

And when you touch that peace, or when it touches you, however briefly,
let yourself add, "...and peace to all the world." Gently wish that
peace for all your brothers and sisters. That is all we are here for.
That is all that really needs to be done. It will be enough.

"Your Son is like to You in perfect sinlessness. And with this thought
we gladly say 'Amen'" (1:6-7). The thought of perfect sinlessness brings
the Course to its conclusion; that is its goal. "But the content of the
course never changes. Its central theme is always, 'God's Son is
guiltless, and in his innocence is his salvation.'" (M-1.3:4,5) When I
have accepted my own perfect sinlessness, and have extended that thought
to include the entire world, salvation is accomplished. To do so is to
perfectly forgive all things. Sinlessness and peace go together. Only
the sinless can be at peace; only the peaceful are sinless. The message
of the Course is one of radical innocence. All are innocent, and no one
must be condemned for others to be free.

WHAT AM I? (Part 10)

W-pII.14.5:3-5

Our function here is to "bring glad tidings to the Son of God, who
thought he suffered" (5:3). The Son of God who thought he suffered is
you, me, and everyone who comes into our life. What a wonderful calling!
To announce, as the prophet Isaiah said in the Old Testament,

"...to preach good tidings unto the meek; ...to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of
the prison to [them that are] bound;...to comfort all that mourn; ...to
give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isaiah 61:1-3).

This season of Christmas is said to be a time of "great joy for all
people." In the Course we have a continuation of that message, and we
are its heralds. We can announce, "Now is [the Son of God] redeemed"
(5:4). The way is open for every one of us to find our way home, and to
know first our perfect forgiveness, and then the immensity of God's
Love.

"And as he sees the gate of heaven stand open before him, he will enter
in and disappear into the Heart of God" (5:5). As these "glad tidings"
are received, we will all, in the end, enter in through the heavenly
gates, symbolic of entering into the awareness of perfect Oneness. In
that Oneness we will disappear into the Heart of God. That word
"disappear" does not, in any sense, mean that we shall cease to exist,
or that we will be absorbed and somehow blotted out by the absorption.
It is just that all sense of difference and separateness will be gone,
along with all desire for it. We will disappear in the Oneness, but we
will be <in> that Oneness, profoundly a part of it, radiantly fulfilling
our function, shining forever in the eternal glory of God.

    COMMENTARIES ON LESSONS FROM THE WORKBOOK OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
    by Allen Watson, with Practice Summaries by Robert Perry
    The Circle of Atonement--Visit our website at <http://www.circleofa.com>

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


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