[acimlessons_list] Lesson 288 - October 15

Thu Oct 14 06:30:25 EDT 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 288 - October 15

"Let me forget my brother's past today."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

(See and also Part II Introduction)

COMMENTARY

"I cannot come to You without my brother" (1:2). The decision for God is the
decision to share. What we recognize, in recognizing our Identity, is an
Identity that is shared with all living things. Because my salvation lies in
awaking to this shared Identity, it is impossible to come to God alone. The
problem is separation; therefore the solution is unity.

"[My brother's] sins are in the past along with mine, and I am saved because
the past is gone" (1:5). If the past is gone for me, it is gone for
everyone. If I hold on to the past in regard to my brother, therefore, and
hold grievances against him in any way, I am denying my own salvation. "Let
me not cherish [the past] within my heart, or I will lose the way to walk to
You" (1:6).

The lesson teaches that "to know my Source, I first must recognize what You
created one with me" (1:3). In other words, to fully appreciate my own
origins in God, to know my own holiness and perfection, I need to see that
"that awful person" and everyone else was created by God in just the same
way. "I cannot come to You without my brother" (1:2).

We all have certain people we just can't see as being in Heaven. Let's say
one of mine is named George. I can't see George as being worthy of Heaven.
Maybe, for me, if George were there it wouldn't be Heaven. Do you know the
kind of person I mean?

Well, "I cannot come to You without my brother" does not mean that I can't
get to Heaven until George does. It means that I can't get to Heaven until I
see George as already there. It is still something in my control; I'm not
made dependent on the other person's seeing. In my mind George must be seen
as the same as myself. In my mind, I must see his holiness, I must forget
his past. When I can forget his past, I can forget my own.

If I hold the past against my brother I am holding it against myself. We
cannot see ourselves as any higher than we see our brother. I can't be any
holier than he is. Yet I cannot be any less holy than Jesus.

The bottom line is, I can't see myself as having any gift of God that I am
not willing for everyone to have.

When I honor my brother as my savior, I am recognizing Who he really is, and
thereby I recognize my own Identity, shared with him. My brothers and
sisters are my saviors, not in the sense that they provide me with something
I do not have or do something for me I cannot do, but in the sense that by
forgiving them, by forgetting their past, I remind myself of the truth about
myself which I share with them. They show me my own judgment on myself, and
give me opportunity to let it go. When I see my brother, I am seeing myself,
and my gentleness and kindness toward them, in forgiveness, is the way I can
give these gifts to myself.

In the closing paragraph, Jesus speaks to us. It is important to recognize
Him as the speaker:

"Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven me if you
behold your brother in the light of holiness. He cannot be less holy than
can I, and you can not be holier than he" (2:1-3).

I have said that how I see my brother is how I see myself. In this
paragraph, Jesus makes it plain that how I see my brother is also a
reflection of how I see Him, and how I see God. And thus my forgiveness of a
brother is identical to forgiving Jesus, and to forgiving God.

"You can not be holier than he [your brother]" (2:3). The limit I mentally
place on my brother, by how I perceive him, is a limit I am placing on
myself. If I hold him to the past, then I am held to the past. If I see him
as incapable of understanding, incapable of learning, incapable of
perfection, then I am seeing myself that way. No one is beyond redemption.
If I see a brother as if I believe "He will never find God in this
lifetime," I am placing that limit on myself. And in every case, the limit
is false. "There is no order of difficulty in miracles" (T-1.I.1:1).

What is the Holy Spirit? (Part 8)

W-pII.7.4:2-3

"Without forgiveness will your dreams remain to terrify you" (4:2).

Our dreams disappear when we forgive them, which means that we see that what
we think was done to us never occurred (W-pII.1.1:1). Not that the events
did not happen, but that our interpretation of them (what we thought was
being done to us, the perception of attack) was incorrect. If we do not
forgive, the dreams will remain terrifying to us. Forgiveness means seeing
that there is nothing to forgive. It means reinterpreting the past and
remembering only the love that was there, or the call for love, and denying
any reality to our perception of attack.

We may resist doing this. We may think that, for some reason, it is
important to hold on to our perception of injury. But if we do, we will
continue to experience terror. The past will continue to perpetuate itself
in our present and in our future. Eventually all of us will come to realize
that this isn't what we want, and we will let the past go. "Let me forget my
brother's past today" (Lesson 288).

Until we forgive the past and let it go, "the memory of all your Father's
Love will not return to signify the end of dreams has come" (4:3). How can
we remember God's Love when we continue to see ourselves as injured? "Would
a loving God have allowed this?" we ask ourselves. Do I want to believe in
the reality of sin, or in the Love of God? The Holy Spirit is calling to us,
from within ourselves, to let forgiveness rest on all of our dreams. That is
the only way we can be restored to sanity and peace of mind. 

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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
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