[acimlessons_list] Lesson 342--December 8

Wed Dec 7 18:43:25 EST 2005

Lesson 342

"I let forgiveness rest upon all things, For thus forgiveness will be
given me."

PRACTICE SUMMARY (See Part II Practice Summary, and also Part II
Introduction)

COMMENTARY

As the fourth sentence says, "The key is in my hand." Forgiveness is the
key. As I forgive, I receive forgiveness--not from God as a reward for
my good deed (God has no need to forgive, never having condemned),
but--from myself. Forgiveness really means no more than that I "let
creation be as You would have it be and as it is" (1:7). In my ego mind,
I am the only one who has overlaid an illusion of "sin" onto the world
around me. When I look with condemnation on the world, I am not seeing
reality as it is. There is nothing to condemn, and that fact is my own
salvation. If what I think is so of the world is true, then I am damned
with it. Only when I let creation be as God would have it
be--innocent--can I be free of condemnation.

This is God's plan "to save me from the hell I made" (1:1). I made the
hell; God gives me forgiveness as the way out. The hell I made is not
real, thank God. In this Course I have come right up to the door to the
end of dreams (1:4). I hold forgiveness, the key, in my hand. "I stand
before the gate of Heaven, wondering if I should enter in and be at
home" (1:5). In every instant today when I face the choice between
judgment and forgiveness, between murder and a miracle, I am standing at
that gate, holding the key in my hand, wondering if I should go in.

"Let me not wait again today. Let me forgive all things, and let
creation be as You would have it be and as it is. Let me remember that I
am Your Son, and opening the door at last, forget illusions in the
blazing light of truth, as memory of You returns to me" (1:6-8).
Forgiveness is the key; the choice to open the door is mine. To open it
I must be willing to forget all illusions. I must be willing to let go
of my investment in seeing my own sins in my brother and to release him.

"Brother, forgive me now. I come to you to take you home with me. And as
we go, the world goes with us on our way to God" (2:1-3). Let me think
of these lines with every person I meet today. "Forgive me now. I come
to take you home with me." Oh, let that be the way I greet everyone in
my mind! Let us all go home together!

WHAT IS A MIRACLE? (Part 2)

W-pII.13.1:4-6

"It [a miracle] undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond
perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness" (1:4). A miracle
relates to perception, and not to direct revelation. It causes a change
in my perception, undoing my perceptual errors.

"Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, or
atone for, the faulty perception of lack" (T-1.I.41:1-2).

When my mind experiences a miracle, I see wholeness instead of lack. In
regard to "sin," which is a perception of lack of love in someone, the
miracle causes me to see their love instead of their "sin." I see them
as whole, rather than as lacking. The miracle undoes my error, but it
does not attempt to go beyond that. Miracles occur within the context of
perception and of time; they do not try to carry me to the realm of
knowledge and of eternity. They correct my perception but they do not
give knowledge. "Thus it stays within time's limits" (1:5).

The Course makes this point over and over; it seems to be an important
one. I think it is important to us because, when we turn to a spiritual
path, we often become over-anxious. We want or expect a miracle to
translate us immediately into the realm of pure spirit. We want a quick
fix. But we cannot make a transition directly from false perception to
pure knowledge. We have to go through the stage of corrected perception.
We can't skip steps. The Text says it clearly: "... perception must be
straightened out before you can know anything" (T-3.III.1:2). That is
what miracles are for: correcting our perception. Once our perception is
corrected, God can take us the rest of the way, from perception to
knowledge.

"Redeemed perception is easily translated into knowledge, for only
perception is capable of error and perception has never been. Being
corrected it gives place to knowledge, which is forever the only
reality" (T-12.VIII.8:6-7).

"Yet it [the miracle] paves the way for the return of timelessness and
love's awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it
brings" (1:6). The "gentle remedy" of the miracle, in correcting our
perception, "paves the way" for a return to full knowledge, outside of
time completely. Without the undoing of our false perception, we will
resist knowledge and reject love; we will be afraid of it. Our twisted
perception of love, for instance, believes that love means sacrifice,
and that total Love would mean total sacrifice. We therefore run away
from it; we fear it. Such perceptions need to be changed before we would
even be willing to let real love awaken within us. Because the miracle
removes our fear, it opens the way for love. It ends our resistance; it
removes the interference.

    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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Portions from Clarification of Terms (c) Copyright 1975, Psychotherapy:
Purpose, Process and Practice, (c) 1976, The Song of Prayer, (c) 1978, are
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