[acimlessons_list] Review V, Lesson 178 - June 27

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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>
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Review V, Lesson 178 - June 27

"GOD IS BUT LOVE, AND THEREFORE SO AM I."

(165) "LET NOT MY MIND DENY THE THOUGHT OF GOD."

(166) "I AM ENTRUSTED WITH THE GIFTS OF GOD."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See Review V practice instructions.

COMMENTARY

<Paragraph 10 of the review introduction:>

The practice of the Workbook is meant to induce not just new thoughts and
new permutations of thoughts, but an experience: "a new experience for you,
yet one as old as time and older still" (10:1). How can an experience be
older than time? How but in being part of eternity? "The holy instant
reaches to eternity, and to the Mind of God" ( T-15.V.11:5). "The holy
instant is a miniature of eternity" (T-17.IV.11:4). These times spent in
quiet with God are occasions when we step out of time and into timelessness;
what we experience here is older than time, incredibly ancient and yet
immediately present, always present.

We are experiencing our Self. "Hallowed your name. Your glory undefiled
forever" (10:2-3). These are words that sound to us (if our background is
Christian, at any rate) as if they should be spoken of God. Yet here they
are spoken of <you> and of me. What is it like to experience such a thing?
What is it like to know yourself as one of whom these words can be spoken,
one who is entrusted with the gifts of God? I do not think words can convey
it, although many have attempted to do so. What is required is an
experience; then, words become unnecessary and even unwanted.

"There is a kind of experience so different from anything the ego can offer
that you will never want to cover or hide it again" (T-4.III.5:1). That is
what we are seeking in these quiet times. Not desperately or anxiously, not
with concern or fear that it will not come to us, but peacefully, quietly,
trustingly. We cannot force it to happen, we can only "let" it happen. We do
not seek to add anything to ourselves, we simply seek to stop <denying> the
Thought of God, which is the whole truth about us.

In this moment we can experience our "wholeness now complete, as God
established it" (10:4). Once you have known your own wholeness, why would
you ever again want to cover or hide it? Only the lie that what you are is
something you do not want to know could have ever persuaded you to hide it.
Outside the holy instant our Self is surrounded by a ring of fear; we shy
away from approaching the Self because we have been tricked into believing
that what we will find is fearful.

The time it seems to take to find the holy instant is not because it is
mysterious and inaccessible; the time is only the measure of our fear of our
Self. It takes this time to gently still our fears, until we are ready to
find the Self that lies outside of time, older than time itself, whole and
complete as God created It. This Self is the Thought of God. Our unawareness
of it is only our denial of this Thought. Our experience of it is only the
ending of our denial. The Self does not change, nor come and go. It <is>.

In this Self we are "completing His extension in [our] own" (10:5). The
creative extension of God is made complete as we, in turn, extend ourselves.
The Love that made us flows through us to enliven others. We are practicing
what we have always known; we knew it before the ancient truth seemed to
disappear into illusion, and we will know it again. In the holy instant we
know it now. And what we know is this: We are entrusted with the gifts of
God. Our giving of them completes His giving. "We remind the world that it
is free of all illusions every time we say: <God is but Love, and therefore
so am> <I>" (10:7-8). 
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 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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