[acimlessons_list] Lesson 233--August 21

Allen Watson allen at circleofa.org
Sat Aug 20 05:55:06 EDT 2005 

Lesson 233 * August 21

"I give my life to God to guide today."

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: I find that it helps to make the idea more
specific by saying, <"I give this situation to God to guide today.">

Commentary

One thing I find very interesting about the Course is that it is not
persnickety about its theology. There are places in the Course that
make it quite clear that God does not hear the specific words of our
prayers (although He <does> hear the prayers of our heart, of which
words are only symbols, see M-21.1-2), and that, knowing only the
truth, He does not know the details of our errors (He simply knows we
are asleep [T-6.V.1:5-8]; the content of our nightmares, being false,
is unknown to Him because He knows only truth). <Technically>, then,
if we wanted to be theologically correct, prayer ought to be
addressed to the Holy Spirit or to Jesus, who are specifically spoken
of as intermediaries between truth and illusion, or as bridges between
us and God. Yet, here in the second half of the Workbook, we have 140
lessons, each of which contains a prayer addressed to "Father."

In today's lesson, the Father is asked to guide us. Yet elsewhere,
being Guide is defined as the function of the Holy Spirit. So I get
the feeling that Jesus (the author) isn't particularly concerned with
strict theological correctness. I think he is a good example for all
of us to follow. Would he be teaching us to pray to the Father if it
were some sort of substandard spiritual practice?

If we gleaned nothing more from the Course than the practice of daily
giving our lives over to God's guidance, we would be quickly taken
home. We can ask Him to replace our thoughts with His own, and to
direct all our acts during the day, all we do and think and say. To
act or think on our own is, literally, a waste of time. His wisdom is
infinite, His Love and tenderness are beyond comprehension. Could we
ask for a more reliable Guide?

The first step in following God's guidance is a stepping <back>,
releasing our tight hold on our lives and deliberately placing them
under His control. The guidance will come. Sometimes, perhaps rarely,
we will hear an inner Voice. In my personal experience this is very
rare. Other times, things will happen around us that make our way
plain. Or an inner conviction will build for no apparent reason. We
will "just happen to notice" something someone says, or a song on the
radio, or a line in a book. If we are <listening> for it, we will hear
it.

Another key is giving our day to Him "with no reserve at all" (2:2);
that is, holding nothing back. Sometimes we are so fixated on what we
think we want or need that we are not willing to hear any guidance to
the contrary. And if we aren't willing to hear it, we won't. We're
like a broken shopping cart that always wants to steer left or right;
we just don't respond well to guidance. We have to be willing to let
go of all our preferences, all our investment in the outcome, and
become completely malleable, completely open to whatever direction He
wants to give to us. An old Christian hymn says:

Have Thine own way, Lord,

Have Thine own way.

Thou are the potter,

I am the clay.

Mold me and make me,

After Thy will,

While I am waiting,

Yielded and still.

That is what stepping back means. That is how we give our lives to
God to guide. He guides. We follow, without questioning (1:7).

WHAT IS SALVATION?

Part 3: W-pII.2.2:1-3

The Thought of peace that is our salvation "was given to God's Son
the instant that his mind had thought of war" (2:1). No time
intervened at all between the thought of war and the Thought of
peace. Salvation was given instantly when the need arose. In a
beautiful image, the Text says that "not one note in Heaven's song
was missed" (T-26.V.5:4). The peace of Heaven was completely
undisturbed. And having been answered, the problem was resolved for
all of time and all eternity, in that timeless instant.

Our discovery of salvation, however, takes time. Or at least seems
to. A poor analogy: Imagine that you are suddenly burdened with a ten
thousand dollar tax bill for a hitherto unexpected reason, but at that
very instant, someone deposits one million dollars into your checking
account. You could spend a lot of time trying to raise the needed
money if you didn't know about the deposit, but actually all you need
to do is nothing, because the problem is already solved. Your only
need, then, is to stop trying to solve the problem, and learn that it
has already been answered.

Before the thought of separation (or war) arose, there was no need
for a "Thought of peace." Peace simply <was>, without an opposite. So
in a certain sense we could say that the problem created its own
answer. Before the problem, there was no answer because there was no
need of one. But when the problem arose, the answer was already
there. "When the mind is split there is a need of healing" (2:3). It
is the thought of separation that makes the thought of healing
needful, but when the healing is accepted, or when the thought of
separation is abandoned, healing is no longer needed. Healing is a
temporary (or temporal, related to time) measure. There is no need of
it in Heaven.

As the Course says of forgiveness, because there is an illusion of
need, there is need for an illusion of answer. But that "answer" is
really simple acceptance of what has always been true, and always
will be. Peace simply is, and salvation lies in our acceptance of
that fact. Salvation, as the Course sees it, is not an active divine
response to a real need. It is, instead, an apparent response to a
need that, in truth, does not exist.

This is why the Course calls our spiritual path "a journey without
distance" (T-8.VI.9:7) and, indeed, "a journey that was not begun"
(W-pII.225.2:5). While we are in it, the journey seems very real, and
often very long. When it is over, we will know that we never left
Heaven, never traveled anywhere, and have always been exactly where
we are: at home in God. The journey itself is imaginary. It consists
in learning, bit by bit, that the distance we perceive between
ourselves and God is simply not there.


    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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