[acimlessons_list] Lesson 232--August 20

[Allen Watson]

Lesson 232 * August 20

"BE IN MY MIND, MY FATHER, THROUGH THE DAY."

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.

Practice suggestion: The prayer for today's lesson is one of my
favorites in the Workbook. I have benefited from a practice that you
may want to try today: Attempt to have the kind of day the prayer
describes by focusing on each part of the prayer at the time of day
which that part speaks of. Here is how it might look:

* FROM THE MOMENT OF WAKING TO 9 AM, make this line your frequent
reminder: <"Be in my mind, my Father, when I wake, and shine on me
throughout the day today.">

* FROM 9 AM TO 5 PM, make this line your frequent reminder: <"Let
every minute be a time in which I dwell with You.">

* ON THE HOUR THROUGHOUT THE DAY, repeat: <"And let me not forget my
hourly thanksgiving that You have remained with me, and always will
be there to hear my call to You and answer me.">

* FROM 5 PM TO 9 PM, make this line your frequent reminder: <"As
evening comes, let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your Love.">

* AS YOU BEGIN EVENING QUIET TIME AND WHILE YOU DROP OFF TO SLEEP,
repeat, <"And let me sleep sure of my safety, certain of Your care,
and happily aware I am Your Son.">

COMMENTARY

When I wake, God is in my mind; His Presence is with me and in my
awareness. His Love, and the joy and peace of knowing God are with
me; they take precedence over any other thoughts. Physical discomfort
and concerns about scheduling the day arise, but none of these
displace the peace of God; it is my bedrock, my foundation, and my
first concern. It is a constant awareness, like the background hum of
an air conditioner, always there, often unnoticed, but ready to be
noticed any time I turn my attention to it.

"Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with You" (1:2). Here
<is> my desire! To dwell with God every minute of the day. It reminds
me of John 15 in the New Testament: "Abide in me, and I in you" (John
15:4). Or the Old Testament expression of the same idea: "The eternal
God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms"
(Deut. 33:27, nasb). Let me remember today, each hour, to say, "Thank
You for being with me today. Thank You for <always> being with me."

As evening comes, let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your
Love. And let me sleep sure of my safety, certain of Your care, and
happily aware I am Your Son. (1:4-5)

Sure of my safety. Thus, free of all fear. For the most part, our
lives are run by fears of various kinds; the ego is driven by fear.
Peace is the absence of fear. And since fear is only the absence of
love, peace and love are interdependent. When I am loving, I am
peaceful. When I am peaceful, I am loving. Where I am sure of my
safety, knowing the Presence of God in every moment, I am at peace
and love flows through me.

"This is as every day should be" (2:1). This is the goal for life in
this world: to live every day with God in my mind. To wake in His
Presence, to walk in His shining Love, and to sleep in His care and
protection. To so live that His Presence becomes my foreground and
all else, the hum and bustle of the world, becomes background.

What is a day like for someone who has learned what the Course is
teaching? Simply this: To constantly practice the end of fear. To
walk with faith in Him Who is my Father, trusting all things to Him,
letting Him reveal all things to me, and in everything to be
undismayed because I am His Son (2:1-5).

WHAT IS SALVATION?

PART 2: W-PII.2.1:4

How does salvation work? The essence of it is stated here in a single
sentence: "God's Word is given every mind which thinks that it has
separate thoughts, and will replace these thoughts of conflict with
the Thought of peace" (1:4). The instant our mind had a thought of
conflict, God's Word was implanted in our mind as well. Before
disaster could even begin, the Answer was given.

You and I, who think of ourselves as separate entities, are such
minds, which think that they have separate thoughts. But God's Word
has been implanted in us; the truth lies beneath all our
self-deception. From within, the Thought of God is quietly working,
waiting, moving to replace all our thoughts of conflict. The thoughts
of conflict are myriad, taking thousands of forms, each in conflict
with the universe and most in conflict with each other. The Thought
of peace is one. It is the one remedy to every thought of conflict,
whether it be hatred, anger, despair, frustration, bitterness, or
death. The Thought of God heals them all.

The remedy lies within me, now. This is salvation: To turn within to
the Thought of peace, and find it there within myself.

* * *

BE IN MY MIND, MY FATHER

There is tremendous value in really praying the prayers in Part II of
the Workbook. I have found this to be one of the most rewarding
elements of Workbook practice. I highly recommend doing this,
speaking these prayers (silently or aloud) directly to God as deeply
felt personal communications, as a kind of "love speech" between the
created and the Creator. For that is exactly how these prayers read.

To encourage this practice I want to focus on the prayer for Lesson
232, which is probably my favorite prayer in the entire Course. I
have used this prayer countless times. If I am driving some distance
I will sometimes spend the time praying it over and over. Over time
each line has come to feel permeated with a beautiful meaning. I
would like to share that meaning now, by going through the prayer,
line by line, commenting on each line as I go.

I would strongly encourage you to go beyond merely reading the
following material and actually pray the prayer with me as I go
through it. To do so, I suggest the following form: Preferably do it
in the morning, since, as you will see, the prayer assumes that. Read
the line from the prayer and then read my commentary on that line.
Then go back to the line I am commenting on and spend some time
really speaking it to God. If you can, spend a full minute or two
with it, dwelling on it, going over and over it, perhaps adding your
own elaborations, until it really sinks in and registers in your
feelings. Hopefully, my commentary will have enriched this
experience, but see what new meanings come out of your time spent
with that line. Then go on to the next line and its commentary,
repeating the same process.

<Be in my mind, my Father, when I wake, and shine on me throughout
the day today. Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with You.
And let me not forget my hourly thanksgiving that You have remained
with me, and always will be there to hear my call to You and answer
me. As evening comes, let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your
Love. And let me sleep sure of my safety, certain of Your care, and
happily aware I am Your Son>.

"BE IN MY MIND, MY FATHER, WHEN I WAKE,"

Notice what a personal communication this opening line is. You are
asking someone to be inside of your mind. In a way this is more
intimate than asking someone to be in your <bed> when you wake. And
you are asking it of "my Father." This is not the same as saying
"God." It makes this God <yours>. Being yours, you don't really have
to <ask> that He be in your mind. "Be in my mind" is not a question.
There is nothing timid about it. There is no "please would you
perhaps be in my mind, Your Greatness?" In saying this line you are
assuming you have the right to walk up to God, address Him as your
Father, and simply say, "Be in my mind." You can even give Him a
time: "when I wake." You are not a servant in the fields, but a son
in the household, with every right to his father's presence.

How wonderful it would be to wake up in this state, to open our eyes
in the morning feeling God's Presence in our mind. Because we are not
so alert when we awake, we usually have only the most basic and
immediate things on our mind--making coffee, getting to the bathroom,
being ready for an appointment. What if, instead, <God> was the most
basic and immediate thing to us? What if, as soon as we came out of
sleep, He was the foremost thing on our mind, and we felt Him within
us? Perhaps we wouldn't greet the new day with our customary sense of
burden, our urge to turn off the alarm clock and pull the sheets over
our head. Maybe we wouldn't even be so groggy. Perhaps we would feel
something like what the following passage says. It is talking about
forgiveness, but we could also apply to God: "[He] sparkles on your
eyes as you awake, and gives you joy with which to meet the day"
(WpI.122.2:2).

"AND SHINE ON ME THROUGHOUT THE DAY TODAY."

This line calls to mind an image of God as the perfect warm sun that
feels just right, not too hot and not too remote. Like the sun, He
rises on you in the morning and shines on you all through the day.
Also like the sun, His shining is completely impartial. He shines
without letup, whether you are peaceful or angry, kind or cruel. He
just shines. Yet what He shines is not physical light. For what is
shining here is not a physical object like the sun. What does it mean
for a <person> to shine on you? It means for that person to radiate on
you the warmth of his love and approval. For God to shine on you,
then, is for God to <smile> on you, as another one of the Workbook
prayers says:

<I am he on whom You smile in love and tenderness so dear and deep
and still the universe smiles back on You, and shares Your Holiness.
How pure, how safe, how holy, then, are we, abiding in Your Smile,
with all Your Love bestowed upon us>. (WpII.341.1:23)

So, if you will, just imagine yourself basking in His sun, abiding in
His smile, "throughout the day today"--at noon, at three, at five, as
you sit at your desk, as you drive in your car. And imagine that
happening <today>. As I said above, it helps to fill in the day of
the week and the date.

"LET EVERY MINUTE BE A TIME IN WHICH I DWELL WITH YOU."

Who would you say this kind of a thing to? Imagine walking up to a
friend and saying, "Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with
you." If this person really thought you meant it, you might get
slapped with a restraining order. To say this to someone you must not
only have an all-consuming desire to be with that person, but you must
have an extraordinary permission that removes the normal boundaries of
politeness and courtesy.

Not only am I stating my desire to be with God every minute, being
with Him seems to be what primarily characterizes each minute. Each
one is not a time in which I am mainly doing other things, but am
also somewhat cognizant of God. Each minute is entitled "a time in
which I dwell with You." That is what defines it; that is what it is,
even if other activities occur on its periphery. And what engrossing
things am I doing with God as He and I pass the minutes away? Just
dwelling. Just being together. Just resting our heads against each
other. That's all.

And so I ask you again, who would you say this to? It would have to
be someone you wanted to be with so much that it would be completely
satisfying to be together every minute, without diversions or other
activities, doing nothing else but "dwelling" in each other's
presence. And it would have to be someone whom you knew would not
reject you, but wanted to dwell with you just as constantly.

"AND LET ME NOT FORGET MY HOURLY THANKSGIVING THAT YOU HAVE REMAINED
WITH ME,"

Imagine a relationship that was so precious, so irreplaceable, that
you wanted to sit down every single hour of every single day and
thank that person just for <remaining> with you. Imagine doing this
not because it was your duty and not because otherwise he would
leave. Of your own free will you wanted to "not forget [your] hourly
thanksgiving," simply to experience the sweetness of your gratitude.
If we had such a relationship, words could not capture the treasure
it would be in our life. Little do we realize that we already do have
such a relationship, and always have had it.

When I say this part of the prayer to God, my mind often
spontaneously adds, "in spite of it all." God has remained with me in
spite of it all. We each have our own versions of what "it all" is.
Yet all those versions come down to one thing: We left Him. We dumped
Him for other lovers. Even while we drove away, however, He climbed in
the back seat. Though we left Him, He remained with us. Therefore, we
really didn't succeed in leaving Him at all. And that is cause for
endless gratitude. Thanking Him every hour of every day hardly begins
to capture it.

"AND ALWAYS WILL BE THERE TO HEAR MY CALL TO YOU AND ANSWER ME."

Here are more reasons to thank God every single hour. If you are
lucky, there have been certain people in your life who have always
been there for you. What greater gift can one have in this world? How
can you ever tell these people the depth of your gratitude? This line
portrays God as a kind of perfect, omnipresent version of these
people. So sure are you of His fidelity that you are thanking Him in
advance. You just finished thanking Him for remaining with you up
until now. Now you thank Him because you trust He <"always will">
remain with you.

Yet more than just remain, He will always <"be there"> for you. He
will hear your every call and answer every one. What are these calls?
They are not just confined to your intentional prayers. According to
the Course, every thought and feeling, every bit of pain or pleasure,
everything you experience or do, is a call to your Father, a call for
His Love. This line, then, anticipates that He will truly hear every
single call and will answer every one with His Love.

A great example of this is found in Lesson 267: "Each heartbeat calls
His Name, and every one is answered by His Voice, assuring me I am at
home in Him" (WpII.267.1:7). What a wonderful image. Each heartbeat,
this says, calls on God's Name. You are calling to Him sixty, maybe
ninety times a minute. And what is the call of your heart? Is it not
to be loved, to belong, to have a home? Thus, for every single
heartbeat, God answers you, assuring you that you are loved by Him,
that you have a home in Him.

Of course, most of us do not really trust that God is hearing every
call, and especially do not trust that He is answering. Yet imagine
for a moment that the Course is right, and He has always been there,
never leaving, never disapproving, infinitely patient, silently
hearing every plea and instantly responding with all His Love? What
if this is going on all the time and you have just turned a
profoundly deaf ear to Him? Now imagine being in the position He is,
being completely attentive to someone who rarely, if ever, noticed
you were there. Could you have waited all this time in love, as He
has done? Or would you instead have screamed at this person by now,
or gotten bored and walked off? The fact that God has done neither is
yet more cause to thank Him every hour.

"AS EVENING COMES, LET ALL MY THOUGHTS BE STILL OF YOU AND OF YOUR
LOVE."

It is still going on. This dwelling with God has been going on all
day, through every hour and every minute. And, "as evening comes," it
still goes on. The coming of evening we often associate with a
peaceful time of rest. The day comes to an end and we can simply
relax and enjoy that ending in peace, as we watch the sunset and the
coming out of the stars. Evening can be a satisfying conclusion to a
successful day, or a needed rest after a crazy day.

Here in this line of the prayer, evening is not a resting at home
after our frantic activity out in the world. Rather, evening is a
<continuing> of a resting, a deepening of an experience of being home
that has been going on all day. It is the satisfying conclusion to a
day of peace. We have spent all day resting on the porch with our
Love. And now, "as evening comes" and we sit with Him still, our rest
grows even deeper.

"Let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your Love." Again, what
person would you say this to? In our normal experience, is there
anything that we could devote all our thoughts to without dying of
boredom? Nothing seems interesting enough. That is why our minds flit
around so much, sucking tiny droplets from one shriveled flower after
another. Think of what kind of love we would need to feel before we
could really say, "Let all my thoughts be about you." Think how
profoundly <loved> we would have to feel in order to really say, "Let
all my thoughts be of your love for me."

Something in us longs to say these words to someone. Yet who in this
world could we say them to with sincerity? At least for very long?
The impression I get from this line and from the entire prayer is
that God can answer a longing in our heart that nothing here can.
There is a relationship that our whole being calls out for, but which
we cannot find with anything in this world. Yet we can find it with
God.

Imagine that this very day you will experience an evening like this.
Imagine that after an entire day of basking in the sunshine of God's
Love, you will reach the peaceful glow of sunset, and find that all
your thoughts are <still> of Him and of His Love. If this really
happened, would any evening you have ever had be better?

"AND LET ME SLEEP SURE OF MY SAFETY, CERTAIN OF YOUR CARE, AND
HAPPILY AWARE I AM YOUR SON."

It still goes on, even as we reach bedtime and the prayer concludes.
We carry our resting with God right into our sleep. I believe these
lines speak to a deep need in us, a need for a kind of sleep we
always want but perhaps never experience. We all want sleep to be
something more than just physical rest. We want our minds to be able
to truly drop all cares and drift into a state of pure peace. We want
to rest in some thought that is totally certain and endlessly happy.
We want to drop off in some glad awareness, with a smile on our face
and our arm around our love. That would be rest for the <mind> and
not just for the body.

Yet how often do we experience this kind of sleep? We usually haul
our cares right into sleep with us. Our mental fists remain clenched
even while our body is inert. We have no thought that we can totally
rest in, no thought that is happy enough and certain enough to put a
smile on our face and keep it there while we drift off. Imagine,
then, sleeping in the manner that this last line of the prayer speaks
of. Let's take the three final phrases one at a time.

<"Sure of my safety."> Sleep is a time of physical vulnerability.
While we lie there and drool on our pillow, anything could be done to
us. And so something in our minds feels insecure about totally letting
go. If we were completely sure of our safety in God, if we knew that
while we slept our Love had His Arms around us, how could we not let
go?<

"Certain of Your care."> In the same manner, something in our minds
is reluctant to completely relinquish our cares. If <we> don't worry
about them, who will? Yet imagine going to sleep absolutely certain
of <God's> care. If we knew we were enveloped in His care, what need
would there be to hang onto our cares?<

"Happily aware I am Your Son."> Another thing that keeps our minds
from true rest is a sense of not belonging, of being alone. We can
feel alone even with our arm around a mate. If we truly believed that
we were God's Son, the apple of His Eye, the object of all His Love,
the heir to all that is His, could there be a happier thought?
Imagine dropping off to sleep in that happy awareness. Is that not
the kind of rest we have always wanted?

I have been talking about holding these thoughts in mind while we
doze off. Yet the prayer says something even stronger. It speaks of
abiding in these thoughts while we <sleep>. Although we think of
sleep as total unconsciousness, it is not. Sleep researchers have
found that even when awakened from deepest sleep, subjects report
trains of thought. Of course, the thoughts that pass through our
minds during sleep are generally bizarre and incoherent. Yet thoughts
<are> passing through. What would it be like, then, to sleep all night
filled only with these thoughts: "sure of my safety, certain of Your
care, and happily aware I am Your Son"?

Now the prayer has concluded and you have spent the entire day with
God. He was the first thing in your mind as you awoke. In every
minute of the day you dwelt with Him and basked in the sunshine of
His Love. As every hour struck you expressed to Him your undying
gratitude. As evening came, your rest went on, as all your thoughts
were still of Him. And even while you slept, it still went on, all
through the night. Having passed the night in this way, can you guess
what would be in your mind as you awoke the next morning? And what the
next day would be like? It would still go on.

And that is how it should be, says the line immediately following the
prayer: "This is as every day should be."


    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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