[acimlessons_list] Review V, Lesson 176 - June 25

[Sue Roth]

Review V, Lesson 176 - June 25

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

(161) "GIVE ME YOUR BLESSING, HOLY SON OF GOD."

(162) "I AM AS GOD CREATED ME."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See Review V practice instructions.

COMMENTARY

<Paragraph 8 of the review introduction:>

Our practicing somehow releases Christ to the world. Opening our minds to
the Holy Spirit makes us available as channels to those around us. The Holy
Spirit, of course, is "Him Who sees your bitter need, and knows the answer
God has given Him" (8:1). One of the things that makes the Course so unique,
I think, is the way in which it both acknowledges our "bitter need" and yet
affirms that in reality we have no needs. It is as if He is saying to us, "I
know that the world of pain and loss is only an illusion and nothing to be
disturbed about, but I also know that, to you, it is very, very real, and I
am ready to work with you on that basis."

Quite clearly, we are being encouraged to develop a relationship with Jesus
and the Holy Spirit. We review "together" (8:2). We devote our time and
effort to these review thoughts "together" (8:3). We are not simply
individuals practicing some kind of mind manipulation; we are engaging in a
relationship, a collaborative venture:

Healing does not come from anyone else. You must accept guidance from
within. The guidance must be what you want, or it will be meaningless to
you. That is why healing is a collaborative venture. I can tell you what to
do, but you must collaborate by believing that I know what you should do.
(T-8.IV.4:5-9)

So we are reviewing these thoughts <with him>. We are not just mulling them
over by ourselves, but listening to that guidance from within as we do so.

"And together we will teach them to our brothers" (8:4). Have you noticed
how nearly every time the Course talks about the process we are going
through, it ends up with some aspect of sharing or extension, some kind of
giving what we have received to our brothers? The Course is not a personal
path of salvation. Indeed it teaches there <is> no such thing as individual
salvation, because "individual" is an illusion. We are not alone. We are not
separate individuals who can be individually saved. We are part of a whole,
and when we begin to receive what the Holy Spirit has to teach, we <must>
share it, because sharing is what He is teaching. We teach "by actions or
thoughts; in words or soundlessly; in any language or in no language; in any
place or time or manner" (M-1.3:6).

We share precisely because the whole is not whole until everyone is
included. As Jesus is incomplete without us, we are incomplete without our
brothers. We, like Jesus, may recognize the wholeness in ourselves and in so
doing, recognize it in our brothers. The wholeness is already there, but
unacknowledged and unrecognized: "I am as God created me," as one of our
thoughts for review reminds us. Our "ancient home" is being "kept unchanged
by time, immaculate and safe" (8:8). We cannot lose it, but we <have> lost
awareness of it, and that awareness is what we share with each other.

As we begin to accept our own wholeness we become reminders to the world of
the wholeness that is also theirs, and that we share with them. There is no
"preaching" quality, no spiritual elite telling the rest of the world "how
it is." It is the happy communication that "You are whole, as I am. I am as
God created me, and you are as God created you." We come to our brothers not
as superiors, but asking their blessing on us, acknowledging them as the
holy Son of God, along with us: "Give me your blessing, holy Son of God."

Your holiness is the salvation of the world. It lets you teach the world
that it is one with you, not by preaching to it, not by telling it anything,
but merely by your quiet recognition that in your holiness are all things
blessed along with you. (W-pI.37.3:1-2)