[acimlessons_list] Review V (for 171-180) Comments and Practice Instructions

[Allen Watson]

REVIEW V Practice instructions

Purpose: To prepare for Part II of the Workbook. To give more time and
effort to practicing, that you may pick up your pace on the journey to God.
To recognize the truth in the central idea (<"God is but Love, and therefore
so am I">). Make this review a gift to Jesus and a time in which you share
with him a new yet ancient experience.

The prayer: Use the prayer in paragraphs 2 and 3 to dedicate the review to
God. It asks God to lead your practicing and to call you back to it when
your practice lags, so that you can make quicker progress on the road to
Him.

The central thought: The review really revolves around this idea (<"God is
but Love, and therefore so am I">). The purpose of the review is to bring us
to a place where truly understand and experience the truth of the idea. And
the purpose of the ideas being reviewed is to support the central idea, draw
out different aspects of it, and make it "more meaningful, more personal and
true" (W-pI.rV.In.4:2). Therefore, have this idea pervade every day of this
ten-day review. Start and end the day with it, start and end each practice
period with it, and surround every repetition of the review ideas with it.

Morning/evening quiet time: At least five minutes; ideally, thirty or more.

Spend a moment repeating the central thought (<"God is but Love, and
therefore so am I">) and the two review ideas. Surround each review idea
with the central idea. Use the review ideas to illumine some aspect of the
central thought and make it more meaningful to you.

Then enter what I call "open mind meditation." Hold your mind still and
quiet, empty of all words. Words are like signposts--they point to meaning,
but now you are seeking the direct experience of meaning, and for this,
words only get in the way. In this verbal void, simply wait in "silent
expectancy" (W-pI.94.4:1) for the experience of what the words speak of, the
experience of your true Self. Your whole focus is on waiting "in still
anticipation" (W-pI.157.4:3). Your mind is at rest, yet also poised. Your
whole awareness is waiting for the dawn of realization to spread over it.
Hold this focus wordlessly. However, when your mind wanders, which will
happen regularly, repeat the central thought to remind you of what you are
waiting <for>--the realization of your true Self--and then return to your
wordless waiting.

Close by repeating the central thought once again.

Hourly remembrance: One or two minutes as the hour strikes (reduce if
circumstances do not permit).

Suggestion: Repeat the two review thoughts, surrounding each one with the
central thought. Then thank God for his gifts in the previous hour and ask
His guidance for the coming hour. Close with the central thought.

COMMENTARY

Another review! As you read through the introduction to the review, you will
notice that there are no detailed practice instructions. The summary, given
in paragraph 11, is the only reference to the actual practice we are meant
to follow. A morning time, an evening time, and keeping the idea in our
remembrance throughout the day--that's all the instruction we are given.
Actually, the full instructions were given in Lesson 153, paragraphs 15-18.
There, the instructions were said to be "a form we will maintain for quite a
while" (W-pI.153.15:1). That "while" is still continuing.

In the ten days of review, I will be commenting mainly on the review
introduction, rather than the daily ideas being reviewed. Today I'll cover
the first three paragraphs, and then one paragraph a day for the remaining
nine review lessons. The theme idea for the review is: "God is but Love, and
therefore so am I." We are told (4:2) that each of the twenty thoughts we
are reviewing clarifies some aspect of the theme thought; I will also
attempt to point out some ways the theme is connected to each day's two
thoughts.

The introduction to our review opens with a powerful appeal to us to take
our practicing seriously, to "give more effort and more time to what we
undertake" (1:2). Once again, as in Review IV, we are reminded that this
series of lessons is meant to help us in "preparing for another phase of
understanding" (1:3). Review IV made it clear that this is a reference to
the second part of the Workbook: "This time...we are preparing for the
second part of learning how the truth can be applied" (W-pI.rIV.In.1:1). The
realization that we are preparing for something more, a shift into another
phase, is meant to motivate our efforts so that we "take this step
completely, that we may go on again more certain, more sincere, with faith
upheld more surely" (1:4). One gets the sense that the effectiveness of the
second half of the Workbook depends, in large measure, on how much time and
effort we are willing to put into our practicing right now.

I remember the first few times I did the Workbook, I always felt the second
half was a bust. Anticlimactic. I also remember that I made no serious
effort to follow the practice instructions; I just read the lesson every
morning. I am absolutely certain that there is a direct connection between
those two facts: my feeble practice, and my sense of anticlimax.

The Workbook recognizes that we have been wavering, and that we have had
doubts that caused us to be less than diligent in practicing. It does not
berate us over this, but it does make clear that if we want the results, we
have to follow the program. The reward will be "a greater certainty, a
firmer purpose and a surer goal" (1:6).

The prayer in paragraphs two and three would be, in my opinion, a good one
to use every day during this review. It needs no comment; the meaning of
every line is quite clear. It is a prayer for diligence in practicing. It is
an affirmation of faith that, even if we forget, stumble, or wander off, God
will remember for us, raise us up, and call us back.

Today's two thoughts connect easily to the theme idea. If God is only Love,
and I am also only love, then everything echoes His Voice. Everything is
nothing but an aspect of Him. The decision I face, today and every day, is
whether or not to accept this fact. Will I live today as an expression of
the Love of God, or will I choose to attempt what must be impossible: to be
something else?
-- 
Peace,
Allen Watson

"When you have seen your brothers as yourself you will be released to
knowledge" (A Course in Miracles, T-13.VIII.8:1).

allen at circleofa.org
The Circle of Atonement
Web Page: <http://www.circleofa.org>