[acimlessons_list] Lesson 332 - November 28

Sat Nov 27 06:51:05 EST 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/> >
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lesson 332 - November 28

"Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free."

PRACTICE SUMMARY 

(See Part II Practice Summary also Part II Introduction)

COMMENTARY

Fear and unforgiveness are very closely related. Our fear, in the
Course's understanding, is rooted in our guilt. Our primal fear is of
punishment for what we believe we have done wrong. Our belief in our
sin produces guilt, and that guilt produces fear. The fear "binds" us.
It is a restrictive emotion. Forgiveness, which undoes guilt, thus
sets us free.

The belief in sin is the ego's foundational illusion. All that the ego
makes is illusion (1:1), and not reality. Truth, by its mere presence,
evaporates the illusions of the ego (1:2-5). If there is an illusion
of a wall in front of us, knowing the truth (in this case, there is no
wall) enables us to "walk through" the wall. There is no need to
attack the wall to tear it down; we just shine it away with the truth.

The truth about us is that we are guiltless. Forgiveness does not
attack sin and guilt. It doesn't have to. It just shines them away.
Forgiveness invites truth to enter the mind "and take its rightful
place within the mind" (1:6).

"Without forgiveness is the mind in chains, believing in its own
futility" (1:7). When I am entrenched in my own guilt my mind seems
impotent, unable to accomplish anything at all. I cannot believe in my
own power because I am believing in my own weakness. The power of God,
given to me in creation, seems non-existent. I seem to be frail, blown
about by circumstances beyond my control. But when I am forgiven, I
once again realize the power of my own mind. By owning my guilt and
taking responsibility for it (realizing that I made the illusion of
guilt and sin), I reawaken to the inherent power of my mind to choose,
and I realize that I can choose again. And choose differently, if I
wish.

When I <exercise> forgiveness, the realization of my mind's freedom
and power comes even more quickly. When I realize that the picture of
sin I am seeing in my brother is of my own making, and that I can
choose to see him differently--that this is entirely within my power,
and not at all dependent on anything outside of me--I am reclaiming my
inheritance as God's Son. By my forgiveness I release the world from
guilt. I have the power to forgive sins! I have the power to free the
world from its chains, and that power is the power of forgiveness.

WHAT IS THE EGO? (Part 2)

W-pII.12.1:3

"The ego is the 'proof' that strength is weak and love is fearful,
life is really death, and what opposes God alone is true" (1:3). To
find its illusory independence, the ego simply negates God and
everything about God. The strength of innocence, gentleness and love
is seen as "weak" and is shunned. Attack is seen instead as strong.
"Standing on your own feet" and being "independent" is seen as
maturity and strength, and union with others and dependence on God is
seen as weakness. The ultimate image of a mighty ego is a lone
individual screaming defiance at the entire universe. The ego cannot
see nor understand that this lone, limited and separated self is the
very symbol of weakness.

In speaking of this choice we have made to become egos (a choice we
can realize only in dreams, never in reality), the Course says:

"Here does the Son of God ask not too much, but far too little. He
would sacrifice his own identity with everything, to find a little
treasure of his own" (T-26.VII.11:7-8).

To learn to listen to the Voice for God instead of the ego means far
more than just listening to the little angel on our right shoulder
instead of the devil on our left. That concept of things leaves the
"me" who listens unchanged, still the same identity, a separated self.
To listen to God instead of the ego means letting go entirely of that
"little treasure of [my] own," which is my entire conception of what I
am as something apart from God, and instead affirming my "identity
with everything" (T-26.VII.11:8).

"I was mistaken when I thought I lived apart from God, a separate
entity that moved in isolation, unattached, and housed within a body.
Now I know my life is God's, I have no other home, and I do not exist
apart from Him. He has no Thoughts that are not part of me, and I have
none but those which are of Him" (W-pII.223.1:1-3).

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