[acimlessons_list] Lesson 231--August 19

Allen Watson allen at circleofa.org
Thu Aug 18 05:55:21 EDT 2005 

Lesson 231 * August 19

"Father, I will but to remember You."

Practice instructions

See complete instructions in separate document. A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open
Mind Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment
in meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore
peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the
day.

Commentary

This lesson is talking about our will. When the Course uses the word
"will" in this way, it is talking about a fundamental, unchanging
part of us, the permanently fixed goal of our Self. It isn't talking
about our wishes and our whims, but our <will>. Jesus speaks to us
directly in the second paragraph and says, "This is your will, my
brother" (2:1). It is a will we share with Him, and also with God our
Father.

What is our will? To remember God; to know His Love. And that is all.
Not many of us, as we began reading this Course, would have answered
the question "What do you want out of life?" with the words "To
remember God and know His Love." A lot of us probably don't feel
those words fit us even now. The lesson recognizes that: "Perhaps I
think I seek for something else" (1:2).

What is the "something else" you are seeking? It might be wealth, or
fame. It might be some form of worldly security. It might be romance.
It might be hot sex. Or a good time. Or a quiet family life, in the
tradition of the American dream. We've called it by many names. We
<think> these things are what we are seeking for. Yet no matter what
we may think, these things are not what we truly will for ourselves.
They are all forms, forms that we believe will give us something. It
isn't the form we are really seeking, it is the content, it is what
we believe these things offer to us.

And what is that? Inner peace. Satisfaction. A sense of completion
and wholeness. A sense of worth. An inner knowing that we are
essentially good; lovable and loving. A feeling of belonging, of
being valuable. Ultimately these things come only from remembering
God and knowing His Love. They are something inside of us, not
something outside of us. Only when we remember the truth about
ourselves, only when we remember our connectedness to Love Itself,
will we find what we are seeking. And we will find that we <are> what
we have been seeking, and always have been.

"To remember Him is Heaven. This we seek. And only this is what it
will be given us to find" (2:3-5). Remembering God is the <only>
thing I am really looking for. Let me then, today, spend time,
morning and evening, reminding myself of this fact: "Father, I will
but to remember You." Let me stop briefly every hour to recall it to
my mind. And each time I find myself thinking that I want "something
else," let me gently correct myself: Remembering God is all I want.

WHAT IS SALVATION?

Part 1: W-pII.2.1:1-3

To begin with, it will help to realize that the Course does not
attach the same meaning to this word as does traditional religion.
"Salvation" carries, for most of us, the connotation of some
impending disaster from which we are "saved." From hell, for
instance. From some terrible punishment. From the consequences of our
wrongdoing. The picture often used in traditional Christianity is of a
drowning man being thrown a life-preserver; "Throw out the lifeline,"
the old Gospel hymn says. The Course directly refutes this idea:

Your Self does not need salvation, but your mind needs to learn what
salvation is. You are not saved <from> anything, but you are saved
<for> glory. (T-11.IV.1:3-4)

Salvation in the Course <is> a "life preserver," but not in the same
sense. It does not save us from death; it preserves us in life. It is
a guarantee that death will never touch us: "Salvation is a promise,
made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last" (1:1). We
are not in danger of destruction, never have been, never will be. The
Course's version of salvation does not reverse a disaster; it prevents
the disaster from ever happening.

Before time began, God made His promise, a promise that "cannot but
be kept" (1:2). That promise guaranteed that time, and all the mess
we appear to have made in time, would have an end, and ultimately be
without any effect at all. It guaranteed that life cannot end, that
holiness cannot become sin, that Heaven cannot become hell. It
guaranteed that there could never be more than an <illusion> of
separation and a <dream> of suffering and death. It promised that the
ego could never become real, that no will independent of God could
ever arise. It defined the end from the beginning, and made it
perfectly secure. We <will> find our way to God at last, because God
has promised that it will be so.


    COMMENTARIES ON LESSONS FROM THE WORKBOOK OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
    by Allen Watson, with Practice Summaries by Robert Perry
    The Circle of Atonement--Visit our website at <http://www.circleofa.com>

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