[acimlessons_list] Lesson 264 - September 21

Mon Sep 20 06:59:43 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 264 - September 21

"I am surrounded by the Love of God."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

(See also Part II Introduction)

COMMENTARY

The bulk of today's lesson is a beautiful prayer, and my suggestion to us
all is that we take the time not only to read it, but to read it aloud, with
all the expression of which we are capable. Jesus says, "My brothers, join
with me in this today. This is salvation's prayer" (2:1-2). Will you do
that? Perhaps we might pause at noon, each in our time zone, and as we do,
realize that others are joining us in that very moment to pray this same
prayer, together. And Jesus joins with us all, every time we repeat it. "Let
all the world be blessed with peace through us" (W-pII.360).

(If you can't pause at noon, pause on another hour. Someone, somewhere, will
be joining with you.)

Imagine the effect on yourself if, at least once an hour, and more often if
possible, you simply pause for a moment and silently repeat to yourself,
with conviction, "I am surrounded by the Love of God."

"Love is your safety," says the introductory lesson on "What is the body."
The purpose of these ten lessons is to focus our attention on love, which is
"invisible," rather than on the body which is visible. My text reading today
goes right along. "When you made visible what is not true, what is true
became invisible to you. ...It is invisible to you because you are looking
at something else" (T-12.VIII.3:1, 3).

What is not seen is not therefore gone. Love is still in my mind because God
placed it there. Love is still in everything, all around me, and I will see
it if I will but stop looking at something else. Jesus says that if we look
at love enough, what is not there will become invisible to us. That process
is the shift the Course is talking about. As we learn to stop wanting to see
something other than love, we will stop seeing anything but love. That
outcome is inevitable because love is all there is.

We want to see separation, we want to see bodies, because we think somehow
that keeps us safe. It preserves our individuality. Our real safety,
however, lies in love. Our real safety lies in realizing that we are part of
that ocean of love, never ending. Body, ego, and individual consciousness
are not what need to be preserved and adhered to. Rather, we need to adhere
to Universal Consciousness, to playing our part as a synapse in that
Universal Mind, with no purpose that ends in this little cell of self, but
only a purpose that serves the Whole.

The way to experience love is to give it. "For if love is sharing, how can
you find it except through itself?" (T-12.VIII.1:5) Let me today open my
heart to love the world. Let me know that this is my function. As I open to
let love out, love will flood in. It always flows both ways. And what I am
loving is myself, not a separate thing or things. I am not simply a cell; I
only exist in relationship to the universe. The Whole is in every part.
Everything is related to everything else, and only the Whole has meaning. I
am surrounded by the Love of God.

What is the Body? (Part 4)

W-pII.5.2:4-9

We use our identification with the body to protect us from Love. The
insanity of the ego even believes that death "proves" that we are separate.
Yet in reality there is only our oneness. If we are one, the lesson asks,
"Who could attack and who could be attacked? Who could be victor? Who could
be his prey?" (2:4-6).

We believe attack is real, that there are really victims and really
murderers. If our oneness remains untouched (2:4), this simply cannot be.
And therefore all such appearances must be illusory, or else the oneness has
been destroyed. The horrors of this world are the ego's attempts to
demonstrate the destruction of oneness. Death is the ego's demonstration
that "God's eternal Son can be destroyed" (2:9). As students of the Holy
Spirit, we deny this.

We do not deny that, within the illusion, victims and murderers exist. We do
not pretend that children have not been blown up with bombs, that genocide
is practiced, that atrocities occur, that wars are going on, that lives and
families and emotional stability are being shredded all over the world. All
this is true within the illusion . What we deny is the entirety of the
illusion. We deny that this picture represents the truth. We deny that
anything real is threatened. We are aware that what we see is only a dream.
We see the dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and die, but
we are not deceived by what we see (M-12.6:6-8). We bear witness to the
reality, invisible to the body's eyes, but seen by the vision of Christ.

The truth is: Oneness is. The world, the body, and death, all deny this
truth. Our task as miracle workers is to "deny the denial of truth"
(T-12.II.1:5). We deny separation, the denial of oneness. We stand, with
hands outstretched to help, and by our words, our actions, our thoughts, and
above all, by our love, we demonstrate the truth of eternal oneness. 

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+ 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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