[acimlessons_list] Lesson 240 - August 28

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 240 - August 28

"FEAR IS NOT JUSTIFIED IN ANY FORM."

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.

Practice suggestion: Try to be vigilant all day for any instance of fear,
including worry, anxiety, or nervousness. When you notice an instance,
repeat the line in this specific way: <"Fear is not justified in this form,
because fear is not justified in> any< form.">

COMMENTARY

"Fear is deception" (1:1). When we are afraid, we have been deceived by some
lie, because given what we are (Sons of God, a part of Love Itself) (1:7-8),
nothing can ever harm us or cause us loss of any kind. Therefore, when fear
arises, we must have seen ourselves as we could never be (1:2). The reality
of what we are is never in danger: "Nothing real can be threatened"
(T-In.2:2). All the things in the world that appear to threaten us are
simply impossible, because we cannot be threatened. "Not one thing in this
world is true" (1:3). "Nothing unreal exists" (T-In.2:3).

All the threats of the world, whatever their forms, witness only to one
thing: our illusions about ourselves (1:4-5). We are seeing ourselves as
something vulnerable; a body, a fragile ego, a physical life form that can
be snuffed out in an instant. That is not what we are, and when we fear,
that is what we are thinking we are. In order for us to come to believe that
we are something else--the eternal Son of God, forever secure in God's Love,
beyond the reach of death--we must be willing to learn the unreality of all
that the world seems to witness to. Eventually we must come to see that to
attempt to hold on to the reality of this world is to hold on to death.

If we insist on making the world real, today's statement, "Fear is not
justified," will never seem true to us. <Everything> in this world is
vulnerable, changeable, and will ultimately pass away. If we try to hold on
to it, fear is inevitable because the end of what we are holding on to is
also inevitable. The only way to be truly free from fear is to cease to
value anything but the eternal.

This does not mean that we cannot enjoy what is temporary, that we cannot,
for instance, pause to appreciate the beauty of a sunset which passes in
minutes. But we come to understand that it is not the sunset we value, but
the beauty it mirrors for a moment. It is not the touch of a body we value,
a body which withers and is gone, but the eternal love it catches and
expresses in the moment. Not the form, but the content. Not the symbol, but
its meaning. Not the overtones, the harmonics, or the echo, but the eternal
song of love (S-1.I.3:4).

Let me practice, then, today, by repeating, "Fear is not justified in any
form." And when fears arise, let me remember they are foolish (2:1). Let me
recall there is no real reason for them. Let my very fears remind me that
the truth of what I value <never> passes away.

WHAT IS SALVATION?

PART 10: W-PII.2.5:2

Salvation results not in a perfect material world, but in a state in which
"eternity has shined away the world, and only Heaven now exists at all"
(5:2). As we enter more and more fully into the holy instant, and the vision
of the "real world" it brings, we are literally hastening the end of time
itself. The phrase "the real world" is in actuality an oxymoron, a
self-contradictory pair of words, for the world is not real (see
T-26.III.3:1-3). The real world is the goal of the Course for us, and yet,
when we have attained it fully, we will barely have time to appreciate it
before God takes His last step, and the illusion of the world vanishes into
the reality of Heaven (see T-17.II.4:4). The nightmare is gradually
translated into a happy dream, and when all the nightmares are gone there is
no longer any need for dreaming; we will awake.

Salvation, then, is the process of translating the nightmare into the happy
dream, the process of undoing the illusions, the process of removing the
barriers we have built to love, the process, in short, of forgiveness. The
experience we are now in is our classroom. The reason we are here is to
learn the truth; or rather, to unlearn the errors. The Course urges us to be
content with learning, and not to be impatient. We will not be, and cannot
be "abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality" (T-16.VI.8:1). It would
terrify us, like a child in kindergarten abruptly being made President, or a
first-year piano student being forced to do a solo recital in Carnegie Hall.
Each of us is exactly where we belong, learning just what we need to learn.
Let us, then, enter wholeheartedly and joyously into the process, practicing
our holy instants, receiving our little glimpses of the real world, each one
assuring us of the reality of our goal, and the certainty of its attainment.