[acimlessons_list] PRACTICE SUMMAR--September 6

Sun Sep 5 06:55:06 EDT 2004

LESSON 249-September 6

"FORGIVENESS ENDS ALL SUFFERING AND LOSS."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

<About once a month during Part II, I'll insert this reminder to review the
practice instructions. Remember, these instructions detail the habits of
daily practice that the Workbook is trying to help us form. If you miss
forming these habits, you miss the point of the whole training program>.

See the practice instructions on page 4, or the Practice Card bound into
this volume.

COMMENTARY

Unforgiveness is painful. There is a tightening, a hardening, an armoring of
the heart. It hurts to shut someone out of my heart. Forgiveness ends that
suffering, that pain, that loss, that aloneness.

To believe that forgiveness ends <all> suffering and loss is not that easy.
It still seems that some of my pain is not related to unforgiveness; yet it
is, all of it.

Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness. Yet
that is the content underneath the form (W-pI.193.4:1-2).

If I do not suffer and have no loss, if I forgive in the sense the Course
speaks of so that I see that there was no sin, that I was not hurt, and that
I lost nothing, then "anger makes no sense" (1:1). If there is no anger,
there is no attack. If forgiveness were accepted by the minds of all of
us-forgiveness received as well as given-there would be no more suffering,
no more loss.

The world becomes a place of joy, abundance, charity and endless giving
(1:5).

This is how I will see the world when I look with the eyes of Christ. Jesus,
even when he was being crucified, saw the world in this way, and his heart
held nothing but "charity and endless giving" for those who condemned him
and drove in the nails.

To see the "real world" does not mean that suddenly everyone around us
becomes transformed into angelic beings. Jesus saw the real world and he was
crucified. But he did not suffer, nor did he lose! He was no longer
identified with his body; he knew that the body could not die because it was
never alive, so he was not losing his life. Likewise for us, attaining the
real world through forgiveness does not mean that all our life becomes a
flower-strewn pathway to glory. There may be resistance. There may be those
who attempt to harm us. Our bodies may still become sick. Loved ones will
still die; cars will still be stolen; houses will still burn down; jobs will
still be lost. The healed mind will not see loss, nor experience suffering,
knowing that "nothing real can be threatened" (T-In.2:2).

I do believe that as more and more minds embrace forgiveness, the physical
reflection of those minds will transform as well, becoming more peaceful,
more loving, more abundant, more full of kindness and charity. The
transformation of the physical reflection, however, is a side-benefit, not
the goal. It is our <minds> that we return to God.

When our minds have reached this height of true perception, Heaven is very
near. The world will quickly be "transformed into the light that it
reflects" (1:6).

Let me, then, return my mind to God today. Let me release myself from the
vise of bitterness, and ease my mind of its fear of violence and death. Let
me rest myself in God today. Let me forgive all things that seem to wish me
harm, and in so doing, free myself from suffering. May I be free of
suffering today. May I be at peace.

WHAT IS THE WORLD? (Part 9)

W-pII.3.5:1-2

Although the Course says, "the world is false perception" (1:1), the Course
does not disdain the world. On the contrary, Jesus calls to us: "Let us not
rest content until the world has joined our changed perception" (5:1). We do
not just turn our backs on the world, shake its dust off our feet, and walk
away. Indeed, we cannot do that even if we would, because the world is a
part of ourselves, our guilt, the pieces of ourselves we have rejected,
projected out and given form. If I am to be saved, the world must be saved,
because the world is myself.

Salvation, to be salvation, must be complete. Nothing can be left out. "Let
us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete" (5:2). We are
asked not to rest content, not to be satisfied with our individual
salvation. "Individual salvation" is an oxymoron; an impossibility.
Separation is hell; salvation is oneness. How can I, apart from you, be
saved, if salvation is the end of separateness?

There is a tendency among Course students, especially with the emphasis on
its being a "self-study course," to become introverted and occupied with
one's own spiritual development, and pretty much unconcerned with bringing
the rest of the world to join our changed perception. The idea that we are
called to save the world, which is a <major emphasis> throughout the Course,
seems somehow to get lost in the shuffle. "Oh, isn't that making the
illusion real? Isn't saying that our calling is to bring light to the
darkness some kind of betrayal of the Course's non-dualistic teaching? Don't
we bring our darkness to the light?" Jesus doesn't seem to think the one
excludes the other. Read these two sentences again. Or hear these words from
the Text:

You who are now the bringer of salvation have the function of bringing light
to darkness. The darkness in you has been brought to light. Carry it back to
darkness, from the holy instant to which you brought it (T-18.III.7:1-3).

Over and over, the Course points out that we cannot become certain, we
cannot fully recognize the truth in ourselves, until we share it with
others. "To give is how to recognize you have received" (W-pI.159.1:7). To
turn our backs on the world is to leave the unforgiveness in our minds
unhealed. Our task is not to preach to the world, nor to argue it into
agreement with us, nor to "convert" everyone. Our task is to forgive the
world, to open our hearts to the world in love. It is to erase guilt from
every mind through our forgiveness. It is, in thought, in word and in deed,
to communicate the message which the Course says is central to its aim: "The
Son of God is guiltless" (T-13.I.5:1; M-1.3:5; M-27.7:8).

There is no conflict in this curriculum, which has one aim however it is
taught. Each effort made on its behalf is offered for the single purpose of
release from guilt, to the eternal glory of God and His creation. And every
teaching that points to this points straight to Heaven, and the peace of God
(T-14.V.6:3-5).

And we are called not to be satisfied, not to rest content, until
forgiveness is complete, and guilt has been lifted from every troubled mind.

    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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