[acimlessons_list] Review III, Lesson 116 - April 26

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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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Review III, Lesson 116 - April 26

"God's Will for me is perfect happiness."

"I share God's Will for happiness for me."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: a second chance at the last 20 lessons, in which you can practice
them more diligently, and which can carry you so far ahead that you will
continue your journey "on more solid ground, with firmer footsteps and with
stronger faith" (12:3).
 
Remarks: Please follow the format below as closely as you can. If you miss a
practice period (either the longer ones or the every-half-hour ones) because
you simply couldn't do it at the appointed time, your progress is not
hindered. Don't worry about making those ones up. If, however, you missed
because you just didn't want to give the time, your progress is hindered.
Those ones should be made up. You missed because you thought some other
activity would deliver more. As soon as you remember that "your practicing
can offer everything to you" (4:5), do your make-up practice periods as a
statement that your real goal is salvation.
In deciding if you should make up a practice period, be very honest with
yourself. Do not try to pass off "I didn't want to practice" as "I couldn't
practice." Learn to discern between situations truly unsuited to practicing
and those in which you could practice if you wanted. 

Longer: 2-one in the morning, one in the hour before sleep (ideally the
first and last 5 minutes of your day), for 5 minutes (longer if you prefer)
*	Read over the two ideas and the comments about them, so that the
ideas are firmly placed in your mind.
*	Then close your eyes and begin to think about the ideas and also to
let related thoughts come (you should remember both of these practices from
earlier lessons). This time, however, there is an important twist. Let your
mind search out various needs, problems, and concerns in your life. As each
one arises, let your mind come up with thoughts related to the ideas,
thoughts which apply the essence of those ideas to the need, problem, or
concern. In other words, let your mind creatively apply the ideas so as to
dispel your sense of need, problem, or concern. This is a more developed
version of letting related thoughts come, in which it combines with response
to temptation (there were hints of this in Review II-see my response to
temptation comments there).
*	Remember your training in letting related thoughts come: place the
ideas in your mind. Trust your mind's inherent wisdom to generate related
thoughts (this trust is a big theme in this review). Don't strain-let your
mind come up with thoughts. The thoughts need only be indirectly related to
the ideas, though they should not be in conflict. If your mind wanders, or
you draw a blank, repeat the ideas and try again.
*	If you try this and it is just too unstructured for you, I have
found the following more structured version to be useful:
1.	Let a need, problem or concern come to mind, and name it to yourself
(for example, "I see this conflict with so-and-so as a problem").
2.	Repeat one or both of the ideas for the day (for instance, "I am
spirit").
3.	While repeating the idea, watch your mind for any sparks of insight
that arise which apply the idea to your need, problem or concern, and
verbalize this insight to yourself (for example, "As spirit, I cannot be
hurt. I am totally invulnerable").
4.	Either continue with more such related thoughts, or go on to the
next need, problem or concern.

Frequent reminders: on the hour and on the half hour, for a moment
*	Repeat the applicable idea (on the hour, the first idea; on the half
hour, the second idea).
*	Allow your mind to rest in silence and peace for a moment.
*	Afterwards, try to carry the idea with you, keeping it ready for
response to temptation.

Response to temptation: whenever your peace is shaken
Repeat the idea (the one you are carrying with you from your last practice
period). By applying the idea to the business of the day, you will make that
business holy.

Remarks: These shorter practice periods (frequent reminders and response to
temptation) are at least as important as the longer. By skipping these,
which you have tended to do, you have not allowed what you gained in the
longer periods to be applied to the rest of your life, where it could show
just how great its gifts are. After your longer practice periods, don't let
your learning "lie idly by" (10:1). Reinforce it with the frequent reminders
every half hour. And after those, do not lay the idea down (11:3). Have it
poised and ready to use in response to all your little upsets. In this way,
you forge a continuous chain that reaches from your longer practice periods
all the way into the hustle and bustle of your day.

COMMENTARY

Somewhere in our collective psyche there is a dark and terrible myth. The
myth is that God's Will means suffering and sacrifice, the loss of all that
we love, giving up everything that is dear to us for the sake of His
Kingdom. Doing God's Will in this myth is a dark and cheerless thing. In one
of her books or lectures, Marianne Williamson characterized it as, "I
thought I would have to wear grey for the rest of my life."

God's Will is happiness. How could Love want anything else for us? Every
human being, even the lowest, wants those they love to be happy. How could
we have ever imagined that God, the perfect Lover, wanted anything other
than perfect happiness for us?

All our suffering, then, must come from a belief that there is some "other"
will opposing God's that wants to ruin our happiness. We secretly suspect,
perhaps, that that will is our own. If not, we know "they" are out there
someplace, and they have it in for us. Yet there is no "other" will. There
is no malevolent power stalking the universe and targeting us for
destruction. There is only God.

I share God's Will for happiness for me. I am not incurably
self-destructive, with some dark and unfathomable vein of antipathy towards
God, the universe, and myself inescapably driving me to death. My real will
is one with God's, and I will happiness. "I will there be light," as an
earlier lesson said. His Will is really all I want.

The Course talks a great deal about the dark foundations of the ego that
drive toward death. Those stygian currents do flow within our minds, and
they do warp and befoul our experience in this world. But the Course does
not leave us there, without hope. It bears the message that although the ego
seems very real, it is not us. It has no power over us; it is a mistaken
fabrication our minds have made. And because we made it, we can unmake it.
Because we chose it, we can choose again. If we stop being afraid of those
murky corners of our minds and look at them, we will recognize they have no
substance. We will see through them to our true Self. We will see what those
dark foundations have been hiding all this time: our own intense and burning
love for God, and His for us (T-13.III.2:8). Here, in the <real> foundation
of our being, we want what God wants, we love what God loves, and we will
what God wills.

Today, then, I let myself rest in the happy thought that at the root of my
being is an irresistable drive towards truth. Perhaps I do not yet
experience "perfect happiness," but I will. I must. Because the heart of my
heart wills it, and joins with God in willing it, and there is nothing that
stands in the way that has any reality or power to resist.

"Nothing can prevent what God would have accomplished from accomplishment.
Whatever your reactions to the Holy Spirit's Voice may be, whatever voice
you choose to listen to, whatever strange thoughts may occur to you, God's
Will <is> done" (T-13.XI.5:3,4).

"There is no chance that Heaven will not be yours, for God is sure, and what
He wills is as sure as He is" (T-13.XI.8:9). 
 
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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
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