[acimlessons_list] Lesson 224 - August 12

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 224 - August 12

"GOD IS MY FATHER, AND HE LOVES HIS SON."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions.
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

These lessons are helping us remember who we are: God's Son. Who we are is
an Identity that is far beyond anything we can imagine, "so lofty...that
Heaven looks to It to give it light" (1:1). In Lesson 221 we were silently
waiting for God to "speak to us of what we are" (W-pII.221.2:6). In Lesson
222, we learned that what we are exists in an environment of God. In Lesson
223, we recognized that we are not separate, but exist entirely in union
with God. And now, we remember our true Identity: His Son. Our Identity "is
illusion's end. It is the truth" (1:6-7).

The truth of what we are is the end of all illusions. Or, the flip side, a
mistake about what we are is the source of all illusions. We have forgotten
it, but in these times of quiet with God, we ask Him to remind us, to reveal
that Identity to us. We are "lofty, sinless, glorious and great, wholly
beneficent and free from guilt" (1:1). Reading these words, notice how our
conscious minds instantly question it, instantly recoil from the audacity of
saying such things. It only shows how thoroughly we have deceived ourselves,
how well we have learned our own lies. Yet something within, on hearing
these words, begins to sing. Something within recognizes the melody of
Heaven and starts humming along with it. Listen to that humming. Tune in to
it. It is your Self, responding to God's Call. Say it! "God <is> my Father,
and He <loves> His Son."

WHAT IS FORGIVENESS?

PART 4: W-PII.1.2:3-4

The unforgiving thought "protects projection" (2:3). Our minds, tormented
with their own guilt, have projected the blame for our condition outside
ourselves. We have found a scapegoat, as Adam did with Eve: "The woman gave
me the fruit to eat. It was her fault." And so we cling to our
unforgiveness, we <want> to find blame in the other, because to forgive, to
let it go, would be to open the closet door that hides our guilt.

The more we cling to unforgiveness, the more we blind ourselves, the more
solid our illusory projections seem to be, until we think it would be
impossible to see in any other way. The distortions we impose on reality
become "more veiled and more obscure" (2:3). Our self-deceptions become
harder and harder to see through, "less easily accessible to doubt" (2:3).
All we are being asked to do is to doubt them, to question our projections,
to listen to a little reason. Unforgiveness blocks the way to this and
tightens our own chains.

We see guilt in others because we <want> to see it there (2:4), and we want
to see it there because it keeps us from seeing guilt in our own minds. Yet
seeing the guilt in ourselves is the only way we can have it healed. If we
deny we are wounded we will not seek the remedy. If we deny our own guilt
and project it onto others, we will not bring ourselves into the healing
Presence within, which is the only place it can be undone. If our mind is
closed, if we are not willing to doubt our version of things, we are
shutting the door to our own healing. Only in opening our mind, in loosening
our determined grasp on finding others to be wrong, in allowing that "there
<must> be a better way" (T-2.III.3:6), can we find our own release.