[acimlessons_list] Lesson 109 - April 19

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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
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Lesson 109 - April 19

"I rest in God."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: to rest in God, untouched by the storms of the world.

Longer: every hour on the hour, for 5 minutes (if you cannot do this, at
least do the alternate)
This exercise is a meditation in which you sink into stillness by using the
line "I rest in God." Let that line draw you into a rest in which you have
"no cares and no concerns" (5:1), and in which the turmoil of the outer
world cannot touch you. While in this state, call to all your brothers,
"your distant brothers and your closest friends" (8:3), and welcome them
into the holy temple within where you rest with God. Realize that their rest
will deepen and complete yours.

Frequent reminders: often
Repeat the idea, realizing that you are not only reminding yourself of your
resting place, but reminding all Sons of God of their resting place,
including those no longer in the body and those not yet born. Try repeating
the idea now while holding in mind the sense that "I am reminding every mind
of its true resting place."

Response to temptation: whenever you face a problem or experience suffering
Repeat the idea, knowing it has power to heal all suffering, solve all
problems, and carry you past storms and strife into the peace of God.

Encouragement to practice: Incredible power is ascribed to your practice of
today's idea (see especially the first three paragraphs), not only for you,
but for everyone. Repeating today's idea has power to call every mind to
rest along with you, including those who came in the past or haven't come
yet (see 2:5 and 9:5). Paragraphs 6 and 7 relate an inspiring scenario. Your
five minutes bring healing to an injured bird and a dry stream. Then, a
tired mind, so weary that he's not sure he can carry on in life, hears the
bird start singing and sees the stream start flowing. And witnessing this
rebirth gives that mind the strength and hope to carry on. Whether or not we
think this specific scenario will happen, we need to realize that our
practice has the power to spark effects like these.

COMMENTARY

This lesson epitomizes what so many of the lessons are trying to get me to
do: simply to take a little time out of my day to rest in God. To be quiet.
To be at peace. To sense the stillness that lies at the depths of my being,
placed there in creation by God. To do this not just once in the morning,
but often during the day, repeatedly reminding myself that this peace, this
serenity of being, is my natural state, while the frenzy of distractedness,
the ping-pong of opposing thoughts that so habitually occupies my mind, is
what is unnatural. What has seemed to me to be "normal" has been nothing but
"frantic fantasies [that] were but the dreams of fever that has passed away"
(5:4).

"There is a place in you where this whole world has been forgotten; where no
memory of sin and of illusion lingers still. There is a place in you which
time has left, and echoes of eternity are heard. There is a resting place so
still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father
and the Son. Where Both abide are They remembered, Both.

...The changelessness of Heaven is in you, so deep within that nothing in
this world but passes by, unnoticed and unseen. The still infinity of
endless peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace, so strong and quiet,
tranquil in the might of its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the sacred
Son of God within." (T-29.V.1,2; Text, p. 570)

And here I rest in God. Here I breathe the air of Heaven. Here I can
remember what I am.

The lesson tells me of wondrous things that come from my willingness to take
these times of rest. These moments of quiet are not for me alone. They are
my mission for the world; through them I am bringing peace to every mind.
Our practice times are no small thing, to be lightly skipped over; the
author places extraordinary importance on them.

"Here is the end of suffering for all the world, and everyone who ever came
and yet will come to linger for a while" (2:5).

"There is no suffering it cannot heal. There is no problem that it cannot
solve" (3:3,4).

"You call to all to join you in your rest, and they will hear and come to
you because you rest in God...you gave your voice to God, and now you rest
in Him and let Him speak through you" (4:5,6).

"Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly made
glad, a bird with broken wings begins to sing, a stream long dry begins to
flow again. The world is born again each time you rest, and hourly remember
that you came to bring the peace of God into the world, that it might take
its rest along with you" (6:1-2).

I came to bring the peace of God into the world. This is my "trust" (8:2),
my sacred mission, my reason for being. Jesus asks me to "open the temple
doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; your
distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them all enter here and rest
with you" (8:3). This is what I am doing each time I stop the mental chatter
and sit, quietly, and rest in God. I am like Buddha, casting his compassion
on the world. I <am> Buddha; I am Christ.

I envision myself as a cell in a cosmic body, a body that has been invaded
by a deadly virus, the virus of antagonism, of disharmony, of hatred, envy
and strife; the virus of bitterness, sorrow, and pain; the virus of despair,
depression, and death. As I take my time of rest, it is as if this little
cell has discovered how to produce the antitoxin, the remedy for the virus:
the peace of God. And the connecting current of our shared thoughts is the
bloodstream that carries this antitoxin to other cells, who absorb it and
begin, in turn to produce this healing substance. Peace of mind, the
antitoxin for the world.

It is for this I have taken birth. It is for this I am here, and nothing
else.

"Time is not the guardian of what we give today. We give to those unborn and
those passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these
Thoughts were born and where they rest. And we remind them of their resting
place each time we tell ourselves, 'I rest in God'" (9:4-6). 
 
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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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