[acimlessons_list] Lesson 256 - September 13

Sun Sep 12 08:06:57 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 256 - September 13

"God is the only goal I have today."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

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

COMMENTARY

The title of the lesson talks about our goal. The first two sentences speak
of the means to the goal: "The way to God is through forgiveness here. There
is no other way" (1:1-2). We are speaking of means and end. Just the other
day I read the Text section on "Consistency of means and end," in which it
reasoned how, if we accept the goal, we must accept the means for getting
there.

The means is forgiveness, and the Course continually insists that
forgiveness is not difficult and cannot be difficult, because all it asks is
that we recognize that what has never been has not occurred, and only the
truth is true. How can it be difficult to be what you already are? If we
experience forgiveness as difficult, there can only be one reaso--we do not
want the means because we still do not want the goal. In other words, any
difficulty stems not from something inherent in forgiveness, but from my
unwillingness. It points me right back to recognizing what I am choosing,
back to recognizing that I always have exactly what I want. Forgiveness
seems difficult because I want it to seem difficult, and I want the means to
appear difficult so I can project my unwillingness out onto the means God
provided, blaming that means instead of recognizing myself as the cause of
the problem.

"There is no other way" (1:2). If the problem is sin and the whole idea of
sin, the only solution must be forgiveness. "If sin had not been cherished
by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you
are" (1:3)? We are trying to find our way to God and we're already there!
There would have been no need for such foolishness if we had not "cherished"
sin. We (in listening to our ego thoughts) wanted to find a reason for
separation, and sin, guilt and fear provided the reason. We made it all up,
and we must be the ones to let it go.

If we simply woke up, the dream of sin would be over. But we are too
terrified to wake up, and the dream of sin and guilt has seemingly become
self-sustaining. There seems to be no way out. All we can do here is
dream--"Here we can but dream" (1:7). But, and this is a big `but,' "we can
dream we have forgiven him in whom all sin remains impossible, and it is
this we choose to dream today" (1:8).

So I spend my days, noticing the dream of sin and forgiving it, over and
over, more and more, until there is nothing left to forgive. At that point,
my fear of God will be gone, and I will awake.

As I notice fear or guilt in myself today, or judging thoughts about those
around me, let me look at them and recognize how insignificant they are, how
meaningless. Let me be undisturbed by it all, and know my peace is
inviolate. Let me understand that none of it matters, and I am still at rest
in God. It is not this I want; I have no goal except to hear God's Voice.

What is Sin? (Part 6)

W-pII.4.3:3, 4

If I consider the implications if "sin" is something real, they are
enormous. And quite impossible. What does the reality of sin seem to prove?
"Sin 'proves' God's Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life
must die" (3:3). If the Son created by God has sinned in truth, then God's
Son must be evil. Is that possible? If the Son of God is evil, then what was
created eternal must now be brought to an end; the eternal Son of God must
die. "Justice" would demand it. Is it possible for something timeless to
end, for something eternal to die? Of course not; these things are absurd.
Therefore, sin also must be absurd. It cannot be.

Sin also "proves" that "God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but
corruption to complete Himself, His Will forever overcome by death, love
slain by hate, and peace to be no more" (3:4). The thought that God would
lose what He loves always seemed impossible to me; it made the whole idea of
hell and eternal damnation seem completely inexplicable. I used to think,
"If I go to Heaven, and my father" (who did not believe in God) "goes to
hell, how could I ever be eternally, blissfully happy in Heaven, knowing my
father was suffering eternally in hell? If I was not happy, how could I be
in Heaven? And if I could not be happy with this, how could God?"

If sin is real, the Son created to be God's own completion is now corrupt;
God has only corruption to complete Himself. His Will has been totally
thwarted. Evil wins. There can nevermore be peace.

Therefore, sin simply cannot be real. Guilt and fear follow sin into the
unreality. If there is no sin, there is no guilt. If there is no guilt,
there is no fear. How else could peace exist? "Sin is insanity" (1:1). It
simply cannot be, if God is God, if His Will is to be done, if His creation
is eternal. This is what forgiveness shows us: "...sin remains impossible,
and it is this we choose to dream today. God is our goal; forgiveness is the
means by which our minds return to Him at last" (W-pII.256.1:8-9). 

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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
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