[acimlessons_list] Lesson 285 - October 12

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 285 - OCTOBER 12

"My holiness shines bright and clear today."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice 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: In the spirit of the teaching in this lesson's opening
paragraph, try repeating the following:
        I normally wake expecting painful things to come to me.
        They seem to fit me because I think I am unholy.
        Today I wake expecting only happy things.
        They are what really fit me, because I am holy.

COMMENTARY

Today I ask only for joyful things to come my way. "I will ask for only
joyous things the instant I accept my holiness" (1:3). The only reason I
experience pain and grief and suffering and loss is because somewhere in my
mind I think I deserve it. In some way I think suffering is good for me. I
judge myself unholy, in conflict with God and His love, and so I need to be
taught a lesson. I need to be rehabilitated. I think suffering and hardship
will teach me a lesson. So I send forth an invitation to those kind of
thoughts, and by golly they come!

When I accept my holiness, "what would be the use of pain to me?" (1:4). The
idea that suffering is necessary is poppycock. We think we learn through our
trials. And we do. But what we are learning is not how to become holy; we
are learning that we <are> holy. Once we get ahold of that fact, we don't
need suffering any more. Once we get rid of the idea that we are sinful and
guilty, that somehow we need to be whipped into line, we understand that we
deserve joy because we are already holy.

We think that if we were to become totally happy too quickly we'd miss
something. We are absolutely convinced that our past actions prove that we
don't deserve happiness and are not ready for it. We think some critical
element is missing from our personality that only suffering and pain can
teach us. Nothing is missing. Nothing is lacking. If the pain, grief, and
loss all ended this instant, you would be just fine; you'd be perfect, in
fact, because you already are!

It's as if we have a transmitter in our heads. We have a picture of
ourselves as guilty and incomplete. We think suffering is needed to correct
that condition. So we broadcast an invitation to pain, suffering, grief, and
loss: "Come to me! Help me out. I need to suffer some more." Because our
mind has all the creative power of God, we succeed in our attempt. We make
all the suffering happen, at least in appearance.

When we learn to see ourselves as innocent and complete, the perfect
creation of the Father, we have no further reason to broadcast such
thoughts. Instead we sing, "Send joy only! Send happy things of God. Today I
am accepting only the joyous; no suffering allowed." I am the ruler of the
universe (Lesson 253). My mind has complete power to create the experience
of life I want. Today, I choose to create joy.

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Part 5: W-pII.7.3:1

If you but knew how much your Father yearns to have you recognize your
sinlessness, you would not let His Voice appeal in vain, nor turn away from
His replacement for the fearful images and dreams you made.

This sentence is here because we <are> letting His Voice appeal in vain, not
listening to it, and we <are> turning away from His Thoughts with which He
would replace our terrifying dreams and images. Our own egos, in their
scramble for self-survival, have convinced us that God is doing <anything
but> yearning for us to recognize our sinlessness. We're more likely to
think (if we think about it at all) that God is sitting up in Heaven with
his big book of records carefully tracking all our mistakes and tallying
them up against us. We are afraid that we have really screwed it up and are
too far gone to be recovered. We are more afraid of God than we are
believers in His Love. We cannot imagine that He still sees us as sinless.
But He does.

When something bad seems to happen to us, we still think along the lines of
"Now what did I do to deserve this?" We still think of the world as some
kind of system in which the universe makes us pay dearly for every slip-up.
The Course says over and over that God is not in the vengeance game. We are
the only players in that game, and we bring on our own punishments. God, on
the other hand, is yearning for us to stop thinking we are guilty and to
recognize our sinlessness.

We turn away from the transformation of our thoughts being offered to us
because, somehow, we've convinced ourselves that if we bring any of this
dark and dirty stuff into God's Light, a lightning bolt will come out of
heaven and zap us. We think that hiding it is safer than exposing it. We
don't want to admit that we have gone off searching for idols, for things to
replace God in our lives, because we think that has forever marred us and
made us unacceptable to God. It has not. All God wants is for us to stop
this silly game and come home to Him. He has given us the Holy Spirit to
help us do exactly that, but we avoid turning within to Him because we think
we will lose, or even die, in the process.
Read the Text section on "Justice Returned to Love" (T-25.VIII). It
describes our fear of the Holy Spirit quite clearly. It says that we fear
Him and think He represents God's wrath, rather than God's Love. We become
suspicious when His Voice tries to tell us we have never sinned
(T-25.VIII.6:8). It says we "flee the Holy Spirit as if He were a messenger
from hell, sent from above, in treachery and guile, to work God's vengeance
on [us] in the guise of a deliverer and friend" (T-25.VIII.7:2).

If I look honestly at how often I actually turn to the Holy Spirit for the
healing of my thoughts, as opposed to how often I <do not> do so, it seems
to bear out what is being said here. Something in me is keeping me from
doing this very simple action; something is motivating me to stay away from
the Holy Spirit. If I really knew how much my Father yearns for me to
recognize my sinlessness, I would not behave like this.

So what can I do? I can start where I am. When I realize that I've been
shunning the Holy Spirit again, I can begin by bringing that realization to
Him: "Well, Holy Spirit, it looks as if I've been afraid of You again. Sorry
about that." And that simple turning is exactly what He asks of us; to bring
our darkness to Him for healing. In opening up about my fear, I've neatly
sidestepped it. I'm in communication again.