[acimlessons_list] Lesson 286--October 13

Allen Watson allen at circleofa.org
Thu Oct 13 19:30:18 EDT 2005 

Lesson 286 * October 13

"THE HUSH OF HEAVEN HOLDS MY HEART 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: The prayer for this lesson is without doubt one
of the most beautiful prayers in the Course. I call it the "I Need Do
Nothing Prayer." It induces a wonderful state of rest and peace. I
recommend taking a chunk of time today--fifteen to thirty
minutes--and praying this prayer over and over again, slowly and
meaningfully, sinking more deeply into it each time. Don't close your
eyes and zone out after the first time; you'll be grateful for the
experience if you stay with it. To aid in this process, I've broken
the prayer into three parts and have put some extra lines after each
line of the prayer, to draw out its meaning.

A DAY OF DOING NOTHING

1. Father, how still today!

<Let me imagine a day of perfect stillness,

in which everything is resting, everything is at peace, glowing with
a soft radiance>.

2. How quietly do all things fall in place!

<Normally, life seems to be a chaotic jumble of conflicting elements.

But today, all things have quietly fallen into their proper place.

As I look out on the world, everything is exactly where it belongs>.

3. This is the day

that has been chosen as the time

in which I come to understand the lesson

that there is no need that I do anything.

4. This is the day

You have appointed for me to finally realize,

"I need do nothing."

REST FROM DOING

4. In You is every choice already made.

<This is why I need do nothing.

In You all those hard choices that face me have already been made.

Let me feel myself resting in You, no more difficult decisions to
make>.

5. In You has every conflict been resolved.

<I feel constantly surrounded by conflict,

trying to resolve one while hoping that the others will not spring
out of control.

But in You, all my conflicts are forever behind me>.

6. In You is everything I hope to find already given me.

<I am always seeking, striving to find the happiness and safety that
I lack.

But in You, I can rest from seeking, for I have found. In You I have
everything>.

THE PEACE THAT IS MINE

7. Your peace is mine.

<You are totally free from choice, conflict, and seeking.

Your peace must be limitless, unfathomable!

Yet because I am in You, Your peace is mine>.

8. My heart is quiet, and my mind at rest.

<In Your peace, with no need to do anything, I am totally at rest,
completely filled>.

9. Your Love is Heaven, and Your Love is mine.

<What could be more heavenly than being loved by You?

And I am loved by You; You love me with all that You are.

I need only accept Your Love, and Heaven is mine>.

COMMENTARY

"How quietly do all things fall in place!" (1:2). I love that line!
That is what realization is like; things just quietly fall into
place, and there is nothing to do.

"This is the day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to
understand the lesson that there is no need that I do anything" (1:3).

Several years ago in a study group, we read a section that described
the state of <knowledge>. Someone asked if it is possible for an
individual to attain this, or do we all have to do it together? "Is
everybody waiting for me? Am I waiting for everybody else?" The
leader (I'll call him Ted) began to discuss Jesus and how we are all
in this together.

"Then Jesus isn't in this state of knowledge yet either, is he?" said
the questioner.

I injected myself into the discussion: "Yes, he is. Jesus has passed
from perception to knowledge. <And so have you>."

We are "at home in God, dreaming of exile" (T-10.I.2:1). We are all
already in Heaven. (Actually we never left.) The story is already
over! We're at the end, looking back and remembering. "We're living a
rerun," someone said. "The fact that Jesus has already done it is the
guarantee that we all will do it, we all will experience what he has
experienced because we are really all one mind," Ted said.

This is the reason that "I need do nothing." We all continue to make
the error that we have to accomplish something. We think that there
is this great mountain to climb, the mountain of enlightenment or
perfection. We may believe Jesus has climbed it, along with others
like Buddha, but we think we're still at the bottom looking up. We
are intimidated by how hard it is going to be, awed by all the work
that has to be done, discouraged by the thought of how far we have to
go to get there.

These thoughts are simply the way the ego tries to handle the
situation when you finally get a glimpse of the promised land, of the
realm of knowledge that God intends for you to live in.

The ego can accept the idea that return is necessary because it can
so easily make the idea seem difficult. Yet the Holy Spirit tells you
that even return is unnecessary, because what never happened cannot be
difficult. However, you can <make> the idea of return both necessary
and difficult. Yet it is surely clear that the perfect need nothing,
and you cannot experience perfection as a difficult accomplishment,
because that is what you are. (T-6.II.11:1-4)

The ego tries to convince you that what you have seen is something
you <lack> instead of something you <already have>. "In You is
everything I hope to find already given me" (1:6). <You are what you
have been looking for>.

The Christ-nature is not something you have to develop. You don't
have to slave over the ego trying to change it into a Christ! That
simply isn't possible. If you think you have to <become> the Christ,
you have put yourself in a situation where "You can't get there from
here." And that is exactly where the ego wants you to be.

The Christ-nature is Who you really are! You just don't remember. It
is already inside you. It is you. You think you are something else,
but you aren't. That is the illusion the ego has cast. You think the
ego is you! You think that all this awful stuff, all this miserable
little worm nature, this weakling, this sniveling coward, is what you
are. That is not you. The ego is not you. The ego is not anything, and
not anywhere; it is just a thought you have about yourself, a thought
that is wholly false. Christ "is the only part of you that has
reality in truth" (W-pII.6.3:2).

When you feel as if you have to struggle, when you feel as if you
have to make all kinds of difficult choices, then you are seeing
yourself as an ego, at the bottom of the mountain looking up. When
you see yourself as the Christ, there is nothing to do.

Our only problem is thinking we have a problem. The thought that "I
don't have it yet" <is the problem>. We need to be enlightened from
thinking we need to be enlightened. All that has to change is that
thought, and the thought changes nothing, does nothing, because we
are always already enlightened, always already happy, always already
perfect. God created us that way and we can't change it; all we can
do is forget it and pretend we are something else.

In today's moment of quiet we can taste the flavor of that stillness
in which there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. "The stillness of
today will give us hope that we have found the way, and travelled far
along it to a wholly certain goal" (2:1). We can taste the reality of
the end, even in the midst of our traveling; we can know the goal is
"wholly certain," and even inevitable.

Today we will not doubt the end which God Himself has promised us. We
trust in Him, and in our Self, Who still is one with Him. (2:2-3)

What Is the Holy Spirit?

PART 6: W-PII.7.3:2-3

What are "the means you made, by which you would attain what is
forever unattainable" (3:2)? The unattainable is, of course,
separation, or life that is separate from God. The means we made to
attain this goal include our bodies, the illusions of choices
(alternatives to God and to love), fear, attack, conflict, denial,
special relationships, sights and sounds, and the whole phenomenal
world of perception. The Holy Spirit understands all of these things
perfectly. He knows exactly what they are, how they work, and why we
made them.

"And if you offer them to Him, He will employ the means you made for
exile to restore your mind to where it truly is at home" (3:3).

This is the miracle. Everything we made to exile ourselves from God
can be used to restore our minds to their real home. But for that to
happen we must "offer them to Him." He is the bridge between what we
made and what we are. He is "the Great Transformer of perception"
(T-17.II.5:2). He can completely reverse the purpose of everything we
made in madness, and use it to restore us to sanity. If we give those
things to Him.

And so we need to bring all these things to Him, asking Him to use
them for His purposes, rather than the purpose for which we made
them. Give Him our bodies. Give Him our special relationships. Give
Him our power of decision. Give Him our attack thoughts, our
defenses, our very denial. (He can use even denial to "deny the
denial of truth" [T-12.II.1:5].) Give Him our perceptions, our eyes
and ears. Give Him our whole world and everything in it. He will not
take them <away> from us. He will take them and use them to restore
us to Heaven.


    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>

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
+ Available in book format from The Circle
+ of Atonement (Vol. 1 reprint due soon, write us for info)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ The Workbook Commentaries are Copyright 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003
+ by The Circle of Atonement,
+ P.O. Box 4238,
+ W. Sedona, AZ 86340.
+ All rights reserved.
+
+ Please notify us of any intent to use them beyond the scope of this e-mail
+ list; write to info at circleofa.com.
+
+ WWW: <http://www.circleofa.com/>
+ Email: <info at circleofa.com>
+ Back Issues Lesson Archive: <http://www.circleofa.com/curwkbk.html>
+
Portions from Clarification of Terms (c) Copyright 1975, Psychotherapy:
Purpose, Process and Practice, (c) 1976, The Song of Prayer, (c) 1978, are
used by permission of the copyright holder, The Foundation for "A Course in
Miracles," 41397 Buecking Drive, Temecula, CA 92590.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To unsubscribe, send a message containing only one word: "unsubscribe",
to the appropriate address:

ACIMWKBK-LIST: acimwkbk_list-request at circleofa.com
ACIMLESSONS_LIST: acimlessons_list-request at circleofa.com

For additional information about unsubscribing, subscribing, and changing
settings for your subscription, send an e-mail message containing only the
Word "help" to either of the above two addresses, or visit the list websites
at http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/acimlessons_list or for
acimwkbk_list, use http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/acimwkbk_list
_______________________________________________
Tell your friends to subscribe. They can simply send an e-mail message to
either of the above addresses with one line in the message body:

    subscribe
_______________________________________________

Visit the new Circle of Atonement web site: <http://www.circleofa.com>

Support the Workbook commentaries! Make a donation to the Circle:
<https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=info%40circleofa.com&item_name=donat
ion+to+support+Workbook+commentaries&image_url=http%3A//www.circleofa.com/im
ages/main_title.gif&return=http%3A//www.circleofa.com&cancel_return=http%3A/
/www.circleofa.com&cn=Note+to+the+Circle&tax=0&currency_code=USD>

(If clicking the above link does not work, try copying it and pasting it
into the address field of your web browser, and clicking on "Go".)
_______________________________________________


-- 
<allenwatson at earthlink.net>
Scripts for OE and Entourage:
<http://homepage.mac.com/allen_a_watson/AppleScripts_For_You>
Entourage questions: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>

More information about the Acimlessons_list mailing list