[acimlessons_list] Lesson 292 - October 19

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 292 - OCTOBER 19

"A happy outcome to all things is sure."

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: As I often do, I suggest that you make today's idea
more specific in your practicing of it. Think of a situation that is
weighing on you or worrying you. Then say, "A happy outcome to this
situation is sure." Realize there is no time limit on when that happy ending
might come, yet also realize that "it is up to us when this [outcome] is
reached" (1:3).

COMMENTARY

God's promises make no exceptions. And He guarantees that only joy can be
the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us when this is
reached; how long we let an alien will appear to be opposing His.
(1:1-3)

"It is up to us when this is reached." We keep coming back to that: <When>
we experience the outcome of joy in all things is <up to us>. My experience
of anything less than total joy is due to my own choice to "let an alien
will appear to be opposing His." It seems to me as if <my own will> is at
times opposing God's. It seems as if I don't want to let go of the little
creature comforts, the physical, mental, and emotional indulgences I
continually grant myself in the illusion that I need them.

The law of perception states, "You see what you believe is there, and you
believe it there because you want it there" (T-25.III.1:3). If I see in
myself a will that differs from God's, I see it because I believe it is
there. I believe my will is different from God's will. And I believe that
because I <want> to believe that. If I am alike to God in every way, God and
I have only one Will, and the alien will I perceive has no meaning. That is
the exact truth! The alien will <has> no meaning! It does not exist. That is
why I want to see "my" will as opposed to God's, and why I do. The apparent
conflict in my life is just the ego's vain attempts to hold on to its
identity, which is wholly illusory.

The truth of the matter is that what I see-my resistance to the will of God,
which is my perfect happiness-does not exist. I am projecting that from my
mind. What I see is an illusion of myself. It is not real, and therefore
carries no taint of guilt.

And while we think this will is real, we will not find the end He has
appointed as the outcome of all problems we perceive, all trials we see, and
every situation that we meet.	(1:4)

All of us go around most of the time consciously or unconsciously disturbed
by the undercurrent of resistance to God we believe exists within our
selves. We think it is <real>. We read A Course in Miracles and determine to
be more loving, more forgiving, and then we encounter a deep resistance to
the entire idea, a seemingly immovable wall that will not allow us to
change. We have an addiction we can't break. We find one relationship in
which forgiveness seems impossible despite all of our efforts. We determine
that "today I will judge nothing that occurs" (W-pII.243.Heading) and then,
minutes later, flare up in anger over some small unfairness. And we feel
despair, we feel we cannot do it. Somehow we are incorrigible. Some part of
us is beyond redemption. Some part of our will is implacably opposed to God.

As long as we believe that this part of us which seems opposed to God is
<real>, Jesus is saying, we won't find the real world. We won't find our
escape. We won't find the "happy outcome to all things."
We have to come to the point where we are simultaneously fully aware of that
stubborn knot within us, and aware that it is not real. We have to get to
the place where we <see> it, <own> it, and <take responsibility> for it, and
yet do so entirely without guilt. To look on the ego's darkness without
guilt is possible only if, as we look, we have abandoned all belief in its
reality. That is what the Holy Spirit will enable us to do. Through His
enabling, we will come to see that the ego is an illusion of ourselves
projected from our minds, nothing more than an illusion, and therefore
nothing to be upset about. "Yes, I see the knot of resistance in me, but
what I see is not really there. I am seeing it, but it isn't real. It
doesn't change anything about reality. I am the beloved Son of God, even if
I can't see that now."

We want the ego knot to change. We want it to go away. And while we believe
in its reality, it won't. The ego <is> incorrigible. Self-forgiveness
involves accepting that about ourselves. The ego will always be the ego,
that's the bad news. But the ego is not who we are, and that's the good
news.
When we catch ourselves listening to the ego, believing in the reality of an
alien will, we can come to the point of learning not to take it seriously.
It's as if we say, "I was dreaming again. Now, I choose to be awake." And if
we find we are not ready yet for full wakefulness, if the appearance of
resistance in ourselves still seems real, we can say, "Yes, I see that, I'm
not awake yet, and it still <seems> real, but at least I am <aware> that I
am dreaming." The ego is of no consequence. It's "no big deal," as Ken
Wapnick says. Even if we seem to be caught in the dream, we don't have to
accept guilt about it.

Yet is the ending certain. For God's Will is done in earth and Heaven. We
will seek and we will find according to His Will, which guarantees that our
will is done.	(1:5-7)

All the raging of the ego, all the apparent struggle: it's all a dream. The
ending is certain, and is totally unaffected by the ego's madness. There is
no will opposing God's, and therefore, His Will and ours will be done. My
will and God's are in fact the same, which guarantees the outcome. The
craziness of the ego dream has no effects, just as a dream has no effect on
the physical world. The craziness of the ego is just a play of images in the
mind, and nothing more than that. In the end there will be nothing but joy.

         We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in
the end. 
         Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have
promised 
         us for every problem that we can perceive; 
         for every trial we think we still must meet.	(2:1-2)

"Help us not interfere." That is our prayer. Resisting the ego, being guilty
about it in ourselves, striving to change it, or demeaning ourselves because
of it, are all forms of interference. They all make the mistake of believing
the ego is real, believing there really is an alien will in us that opposes
God. To not interfere is to recognize that the ego is just a dream about
ourselves, and that nothing need be done about it. The most potent force
"against" the ego is the simple thought: "It doesn't matter. It doesn't mean
anything." Just bring it to the Holy Spirit and let Him handle it. Just say,
"Look, I'm dreaming again." And let it go.

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 2: W-pII.8.1:3-4

The world is a symbol, either of fear or of love. "Your world is seen
through eyes of fear, and brings the witnesses of terror to your mind"
(1:3). The voice we choose to listen to, within our minds, determines what
we see. If we listen to fear, the world we see symbolizes fear, and is
filled with "witnesses of terror." The world thus tells us what we tell it
to tell us.

When we listen to fear, we see things in the world that justify our fear. We
see hatred, attack, selfishness, anger, conflict, and murder. All of these
things are <interpretations> of what we are seeing. There is another
interpretation possible in every case. We can join our perception to that of
the Holy Spirit, and He will enable us to see the world differently.

"The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness blesses,
so they see a world where terror is impossible, and witnesses to fear cannot
be found" (1:4). When we listen to love or forgiveness, we see things in the
world that justify love. Nothing we see witnesses to terror. Imagine a world
in which "terror is impossible," where nothing you see is saying to you, "Be
afraid!" That is the real world as the Course defines it. Everything is seen
"through eyes forgiveness blesses." The interpretation of everything we see
becomes entirely different from the one we are used to.
The mind determines which world we see. With the help of the Holy Spirit we
can choose what we want to see, and we will see it. The world we are looking
at may or may not have changed, but the interpretation we put upon it will
have done a 180. No longer will we see any of the vast variety of forms of
fear the ego has invented; in their place we will see nothing but love, or
the call for love. Nothing we see will call for condemnation and punishment.
Everything we see will call only for love.