[acimlessons_list] Lesson 270 - September 27

Sun Sep 26 08:06:45 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 270 - September 27

"I will not use the body's eyes today."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

(See also Part II Introduction)

COMMENTARY

Of course this does not mean I will walk around with a blindfold on,
crashing into things. I will not, however, let my sight stop at the
physical. I won't "use" the information of the eyes, I won't depend on that.

"Christ's vision...has the power to translate all that the body's eyes
behold into the sight of a forgiven world" (1:1). There's that word
"translate" again. What I want to see, today, my Teacher, is a forgiven
world. I want to see the truth behind all appearances. My function, the
function of every Son of God, is that of a translator. We are here to heal
the world by seeing it differently, and thus we also heal ourselves.

One of the chief components of that different vision is lack of judgment. No
condemnation. No making wrong. No demand for outward changes. Seeing that
everyone and everything is worthy of love, exactly as they are. No
comparisons or evaluations, no making of differences, but seeing everything
as part of One Whole.

"To forgive is to overlook. Look, then, beyond error and do not let your
perception rest upon it, for you will believe what your perception holds.
Accept as true only what your brother is, if you would know yourself.
Perceive what he is not, and you cannot know what you are, because you see
him falsely" (T-9.IV.1:2-5).

"You do not understand how to overlook errors, or you would not make them"
(T-9.IV.2:2).

We are told to overlook error. Then we are told we don't know how to do it.
Instead, we are to turn to the Holy Spirit. It seems to me a fundamental
lesson of the Course is, "Don't trust your perceptions." Don't use the
body's eyes. Don't think that seeing begins and ends with physical sight and
our own mental interpretations.

What we do as we go through the world is something like this. We perceive
something. Our mind may interpret it, almost certainly, and nearly always
with some evaluation, some judgment. At that point, what I need to do is
recognize that judgment is impossible for me, and just let it go. We abandon
our perception. We don't think of it as dangerous, or fearful, or sinful; we
just recognize that it is meaningless (M-16.10:8). That giving up of our own
perceptions is the crucial step. "And for this 'sacrifice' is Heaven
restored to his awareness" (M-16.10:10).

We step back and take what appears to be a very inferior position. We say,
"I do not understand what this means." This is the very first lesson in the
Workbook, "Nothing I see...means anything."

And then we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. "I am willing to see things
differently." That's it. If you get this far, you will become hooked,
because God will answer that prayer. You will see things differently. Maybe
not at once, not in that instant, but it happens. How? I don't know!
Understanding the how of the Atonement is not our job, not our function, but
His.

What is the Body? (Part 10)

W-pII.5.5:4-8

"Love is your safety. Fear does not exist" (5:4-5). When I do not use the
body's eyes, this is what I will see. When I let go of my unquestioning
trust in my perception of things, I will see love. My body's eyes were made
out of fear and made to see fear. I need to end my reliance on this
mechanism of perception, and ask for a new one: Christ's vision.

The statement, "Fear does not exist," may seem incredible to me,
particularly as I advance in my practice of the Course, because one of the
consequences of practicing the Course is that all kinds of buried fears
bubble up in my mind. The Course teaches me, however, that what has happened
is this: In order to hide my own true nature of love from me, my ego has
invented all kinds of fear; then I found them so terrifying that I repressed
or denied them and covered them over with deceptive disguises, supported by
my perception of the world. Now, as I let go of my confidence in my
perception, the disguises are dissolving, and the fears I have buried are
surfacing. This simple message, then, is an antidote to those surfacing
fears: "Fear does not exist." In other words, what I am seeing is not real;
it is an illusion I have made.

How can I escape from my fears? "Identify with love, and you are safe.
Identify with love, and you are home. Identify with love, and find your
Self" (5:6-8). As I begin to look within, I see all these different forms of
fear. Rather than fighting the fear, or running from it, or burying it
again, I need to learn to see past it to the love it is hiding. We have to
go through what the Course calls "the ring of fear" in order to reach our
Self, our home. (See the Text, Chapter 18, Section IX, especially paragraphs
3 and 4.) This is where most of us get stuck. The fear seems too real.

Let me, today, allow the Holy Spirit to show me that this seemingly
inpenetrable wall of fear is really nothing. It is made of clouds that
cannot stop a feather. Let me take His hand and allow Him to lead me past it
to the truth, to my Self, and to my home. Let me choose to identify with
love, and find my safety. 

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