[acimlessons_list] Review I, Lesson 56 - February 25

[Sue Carrier]

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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
+ Visit our website at <http://www.circleofa.com <http://www.circleofa.com/>
>
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Lesson 56 - February 25 (Review I)


"My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability."

"Above all else I want to see."

"Above all else I want to see differently."

"God is in everything I see."

"God is in everything I see because God is in my mind."


PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: to review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch
deeper. Also, to see how they interrelated they are and how cohesive the
thought system is that they are leading you to.

Exercise: as often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at
least 2 minutes

*	Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related
comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own
thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you
frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in
which you generate similar thoughts of your own.
*	Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think
particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on
it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you've received in
that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to
your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which
you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into
your mind.

Remarks: 
*	At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. 
*	Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular
order. 
*	Cover each lesson at least once.
*	Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you
most.


COMMENTARY

"The Door Behind the World"

There is a door behind this world which, if opened, will allow me to see
past this world to a world that reflects the Love of God (3:4). It is a door
in my mind, a door to vision.

This world, full of "pain, illness, loss, age and death," simply reflects
what I think I am (1:3; 2:1,2). It is an hallucination superimposed over
reality, hiding it and seemingly replacing it.

The opening line of the review asks: "How can I know who I am when I see
myself as under constant attack?" Think about that. If I am truly under
constant attack, beset by illness, loss, age and death, how can I be a
perfect creation of God? How can God even be real? I believe in a self-image
that is constantly threatened. If I am threatened, how could I be an
eternal, spiritual being? If the picture I see in this world is true, then I
am nothing, worth nothing, and destined for destruction. I may as well say
with the rich man in the Gospel story, "Eat, drink and be merry, for
tomorrow we die!" I may as well take what I can get because nothing will
last, including myself.

Something in all of us, however, tells us that we are more than this (5:2).
Something in us resonates when we read, in the Course, that nothing real can
be threatened. If that is true, and I am real, then the world I see must be
false. The picture it is showing me, reinforcing my image of myself as
vulnerable, must be a lie. Either I am real and the world is not, or the
world is real and I am not. "For I am real because the world is not, and I
would know my own reality" (W-pI.132.15:3).

Therefore my greatest need is vision. I need to open that door in my mind,
"look past all appearances" (5:6), and see a world that reflects God's Love,
and by so doing remember who I really am. "Behind every image I have made,
the truth remains unchanged" (4:2). "In my own mind, behind all my insane
thoughts of separation and attack, is the knowledge that all is one forever.
I have not lost the knowledge of Who I am because I have forgotten it"
(5:2-3).

I want to open that door behind the world and see the truth again. I want to
remember.
 
 
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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
+ Available in book format from The Circle
+ of Atonement (Vol. 1 reprint due by end of 2004, write us for info)
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