[acimlessons_list] Lesson 305 - November 1

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 305 - NOVEMBER 1

"There is a peace that Christ bestows on us."

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.Commentary

I find myself a little resistant to the lesson today. I judge it; it isn't
"inspiring enough," or it doesn't tell me anything new. It asserts this
wonderful peace, "a peace so deep and quiet, undisturbable and wholly
changeless, that the world contains no counterpart" (1:1). I'm not
experiencing that this morning. I'm not fraught with anxiety or anything,
but I have only a limited peace; it doesn't feel changeless; I think I could
be disturbed. So I feel a bit frustrated. I know that aloneness, for
instance, is there, gnawing away at the peace. It seems that it would not
take much to upset the boat, and my peace would disappear. I think this is
something most of us feel at times while reading the Course.

I recall one morning when I was doing a lesson, perhaps this very lesson,
and all it took to "destroy" my seeming peace was to have someone walk
through the room I was in-twice!

The lesson says that God's peace is a gift, "come to us to save us from our
judgment on ourselves" (2:3). It offers a prayer: "Help us today.[to] judge
it not" (2:2). How do we <judge> the peace of God?

I judge peace as <inappropriate> due to my circumstances. The peace of God
is here, now, and part of my mind believes that, but I refuse to let myself
accept it and <feel> it because my mind judges that peace would be
inappropriate because of some external circumstance. "I can't be peaceful
until <this> changes, until <that> changes, or until <this> happens." It is
an assertion of a belief that something other than the will of God exists,
something which has power to take away my peace. God gives the peace;
something else, something apparently more powerful, removes it. There <is>
no other will, nothing more powerful than God, but my refusal of peace is
asserting a belief that there is.

     You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there 
	because you want it there. 	(T-25.III.1:3)

The Course teaches that in reality I do not have peace because I don't
<want> peace. The first obstacle to peace is my desire to get rid of it
(T-19.IV(A))! That is the only reason. Since nothing really exists that can
take away the peace of God, my insistence that there is such a thing is a
delusion chosen to excuse my refusal of God's gift. "It isn't my fault!" I
can cry. "This person, this circumstance, did it to me. I want Your peace
but they took it away." I am projecting my refusal of peace onto something
else.

There is another way I judge God's peace. I judge it as weak and vulnerable,
easily disturbed.

Why would I want to get rid of peace? Why would I refuse God's gift? In
T-19.IV(A).2, the Text asks the same question: 

     Why would you want peace homeless? What do you think that 
	it must dispossess to dwell with you? 
     What seems to be the cost you are so unwilling to pay?
(T-19.IV(A).2:1-3)

There is something, Jesus is saying, that I think I will <lose> if I accept
peace. What is it?

It is the ability to justify attack against my brothers; the reasonableness
of finding guilt in them (see T-19.IV(B).1:1-2:3). I want to be able to
place the blame somewhere else. If I simply accepted peace I would have to
give up, forever, the idea that anyone else can be blamed for my
unhappiness. I would have to give up all attack, and behind that is the fact
that in order to give up attack, I need to give up guilt, I need to give up
feeling separate and alone, I need to give up separation. I need to give up
the belief in my own incompletion, which is the foundation of my belief in
my separate identity.

The peace of God "has come to save us from our judgment on ourselves" (2:3).
I judge myself as sinful, as unworthy, as incomplete. That judgment is
behind my need to hold on to attack as a defense mechanism, my need to have
someone or something else to blame for the inadequacy I see in myself.

If I accept the peace of God as <unconditional> peace it feels to me as if I
am giving up all hope of ever having things, and other people, the way I
want them. It feels as if I am saying, "It is okay if you don't love me and
leave me alone. It is okay if you take my money. It is okay if you ignore me
or mistreat me. None of this disturbs my peace." <Unconditional> means it
does not matter what the conditions are. And I don't want that! I want the
conditions the way I want them!

Unconditional peace! The very idea scares the living daylights out of my
ego. Everyone is seeking peace; of course they are. But we want to achieve
peace by adjusting the conditions according to our own idea of what will
bring peace. Jesus is offering to give us peace regardless of the
conditions. "Forget the conditions," he is saying. "I can give you peace in
<any> circumstance." We <don't want> unconditional peace; we want peace our
own way. "Peace?" we ask. "What about the conditions?" We don't want to hear
that they don't matter.

The truth of the matter is that our world reflects our mind. We see an
unpeaceful world because our minds are not at peace. We think the world is
the cause, and our peace-or lack of it-is the effect. Jesus is saying that
our mind is the cause, and the world is the effect. He approaches us on the
level of cause, not effect. He isn't going to change the conditions to give
us peace; he is going to give us peace, and that will change the conditions.
The peace of God must come <first>. We have to get to the point of saying,
"The peace of God is <all> I want." We have to give up all other goals,
goals related to conditions. Accept the peace, and the world projected from
our mind will change accordingly-but that is not the goal. That is not the
healing we seek; it is only the effect of the healing in our minds.

Father, help me today to accept the gift of peace, and not to judge it. Let
me see behind my refusal of peace my judgment on myself as unworthy of it,
and my desire to attack something outside myself and place the blame on it.
In the eternal sanity of the Holy Spirit in my mind, I <do> want peace.
Enable me today to identify with that part of my mind. Let me see the
insanity of holding on to grievances against anyone or anything. Speak to me
of my wholeness. Let me understand that what I see that contradicts peace is
not real and does not matter. It is only my self-judgment (which is not
real) projected on the world (which is not real). Heal my mind, my Father.
"Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still" (W-pII.221.Heading). I am
home. I am loved. I am safe.

WHAT IS THE SECOND COMING?

Part 5: W-pII.9.3:1

The Second Coming ends the lessons that the Holy Spirit teaches, making way
for the Last Judgment, in which learning ends in one last summary that will
extend beyond itself, and reaches up to God.

The sequence the Course sees as ending the world, then, starts with our
individual minds going through the process of perception correction, or
forgiveness, until forgiveness has embraced the entire world. Each of us
comes, more and more, to see the real world, until all minds have been
restored to sanity, which is the Second Coming. This re-establishes the
condition in which reality can again be recognized. The lessons are over.
The Second Coming makes way for the Last Judgment (which is the subject of
the next "What Is" section, starting with Lesson 311). 

The Text has already discussed the Last Judgment at some length (see
T-2.VIII and T-3.VI); we'll touch on those passages with that next "What Is"
section. This single sentence, however, gives a couple of interesting
previews. The Last Judgment is called "one last summary" that is the
capstone of all learning. To the Course, the Last Judgment is something the
Sonship does, not God. Perhaps the best description of it is in a passage in
which the phrase "Last Judgment" does not even occur. It comes in the
section "The Forgiven World" (T-17.II), which speaks of how the real world
will appear to us, and then talks of the last evaluation of the world that
the united Sonship will undertake, guided by the Holy Spirit:

     	The real world is attained simply by complete forgiveness of the
old, 
	the world you see without forgiveness. The Great Transformer of 
	perception will undertake with you the careful searching of the 
	mind that made this world, and uncover to you the seeming reasons 
	for your making it. In the light of the real reason that He brings, 
	as you follow Him, He will show you that there is no reason here 
	at all. Each spot His reason touches grows alive with beauty, 
	and what seemed ugly in the darkness of your lack of reason is 
	suddenly released to loveliness.	(T-17.II.5:1-4)

This is the time when, at last, the nagging question we all ask-"Why did we
make this world in the first place?"-
will be fully answered, and we will see "there is no reason here at all."
Under His gentle tutelage, we will carefully search out "the seeming reasons
for your making it." We will at last be ready to look at that "terrible"
moment of the original thought of separation. What seemed irredeemably ugly
to us in our fear, will grow alive with beauty, and the loveliness of our
united mind will be restored and released to our awareness. The primal guilt
will finally be undone, and we will once again know our innocence.

The Last Judgment, which follows the Second Coming, will be one last, great
summary lesson of forgiveness. This lesson will "extend beyond itself" for
it will finally and decisively remove the last barrier of guilt, our
collective guilt at having tried to usurp the throne of God. It will reach
"up to God," for it will completely restore the memory of God to our united
mind. The way will be fully open for God to reach down and once again to
gather us into His Arms, home at last.