[acimlessons_list] Lesson 342 - December 8

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 342 - DECEMBER 8

"I let forgiveness rest upon all things, 
For thus forgiveness will be given me."

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.

Practice suggestion: The following is a visualization based on today's
lesson. It is long, so it may help if someone reads it to you, or if you
read it onto tape and play it back for yourself.

	Close your eyes.
	Think of your current life as if it's taking place inside of hell.
	Think of various problem areas in your life and see actual flames 
	  popping up in those places.
	Maybe you have a problematic relationship right now. See flames 
	  dancing there.
	Maybe you are having financial difficulties. See flames coming out 
	  of your wallet or purse.
	Maybe you feel alone and isolated. You might imagine a ring of 
	  flames around you, separating you from others.
	Just think of various problem areas and see flames dancing in each 
	  of those areas.
	Then, a little distance away, you see a massive, glorious door, the 
	  gate of Heaven.
	Imagine it however you like. 
	Maybe it's made of gold. Perhaps there are diamonds in it. Perhaps 
	  it is shining with an otherworldly 	light.
	You walk toward it, and as you come nearer, you see it has a large 
	  keyhole, like you might see in a castle door.
	A ray of bright light is streaming out of the keyhole, a hint of the

	  glory that lies on the other side.
	You find in your hand a large, old-fashioned key.
	Look at the key, feel it in your hand.
	As you look, you see that on it is engraved in beautiful writing the

	  word "Forgiveness."
	Then you turn the key over, and on the other side it says, "of 
	  [name]."
	The name is someone you deeply need to forgive, but you have been 
	  putting it off.
	See whose name is there.
	Realize that you have been refusing to use this key for a long time.
	If going through the gate means using this key, you are not sure 
	  it's worth it.
	Maybe the flames are preferable. 
	How long have you been loitering there, in front of the gate, 
	  wondering if you should enter in and be at home?
	You finally decide to forgive this person.
	Say to yourself, "I let forgiveness rest upon [name],
	For thus forgiveness will be given me."
	Do your best to mean these lines.
	"I let forgiveness rest upon [name],
	For thus forgiveness will be given me."
	One more time: "I let forgiveness rest upon [name],
	For thus forgiveness will be given me."
	Find that you have placed the key in the keyhole
	And are already turning it.
	You are forgiving this person at last.
	The key turns all the way and you pull the door open; it takes 
	  virtually no effort.
	As it swings open you find yourself face to face with a blazing
light.
	The light of Heaven.
	The light of God.
	The light of your true Self.
	You are transfixed by this light,
	Caught up in the ecstasy of it.
	All questions are answered; all longings are satisfied.
	You are home at last.
	Say to God, "I forget all things except Your changeless Love.
	I forget all things except that You are here." 
	  (based on The Gifts of God, p. 126)
	Spend a few moments basking in this light,
	And then open your eyes when you are ready.

COMMENTARY

As the fourth sentence says, "The key is in my hand" (1:4). Forgiveness is
the key. As I forgive, I receive forgiveness-not from God as a reward for my
good deed (God has no need to forgive, never having condemned), but-from
myself. Forgiveness really means no more than that I "let creation be as You
would have it be and as it is" (1:7). In my ego mind, I am the only one who
has overlaid an illusion of "sin" onto the world around me. When I look with
condemnation on the world, I am not seeing reality as it is. There is
nothing to condemn, and that fact is my own salvation. If the sin I think I
see in the world is really there, then I am damned with the world. Only when
I let creation be as God would have it be-innocent-can I be free of
condemnation.

This is God's plan "to save me from the hell I made" (1:1). I made the hell;
God gives me forgiveness as the way out. The hell I made is not real, thank
God. In this Course I have come right up to the door to the end of dreams
(1:4). I hold forgiveness, the key, in my hand. "I stand before the gate of
Heaven, wondering if I should enter in and be at home" (1:5). In every
instant today when I face the choice between judgment and forgiveness,
between murder and a miracle, I am standing at that gate, holding the key in
my hand, wondering if I should go in.

	Let me not wait again today. Let me forgive all things, 
	and let	creation be as 	You would have it be and as it is.
	Let me remember that I am Your Son, and opening the door
	at last, forget illusions in the blazing light of truth,
	as memory of You returns to me.	(1:6-8) 

Forgiveness is the key; the choice to open the door is mine. To open it I
must be willing to forget all illusions. I must be willing to let go of my
investment in seeing my own sins in my brother and to release him.

	Brother, forgive me now. I come to you to take you
	home with me. And as we go, the world goes with us
	on our way to God.	(2:1-3)

Let me think of these lines with every person I meet today. "Forgive me now.
I come to take you home with me." Oh, let that be the way I greet everyone
in my mind! Let us all go home together!

WHAT IS A MIRACLE?

Part 2: W-pII.13.1:4-6

	It [a miracle] undoes error, but does not attempt to go
	beyond perception, nor exceed the function of
	forgiveness.	(1:4) 

A miracle relates to perception, and not to direct revelation. It causes a
change in my perception, undoing my perceptual errors.

	Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles.
	They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception
	of lack.	(T-1.I.41:1-2)

When my mind experiences a miracle, I see wholeness instead of lack. In
regard to "sin," which is a perception of lack of love in someone, the
miracle causes me to see their love instead of their "sin." I see them as
whole, rather than as lacking. The miracle undoes my error, but it does not
attempt to go beyond that. Miracles occur within the context of perception
and of time; they do not try to carry me to the realm of knowledge and of
eternity. They correct my perception but they do not give knowledge. "Thus
it stays within time's limits" (1:5).

The Course makes this point repeatedly; it must be important. What makes it
so important to us? This: When we turn to a spiritual path, we can become
overanxious. We want a miracle to translate us immediately into the realm of
pure spirit. We want a quick fix. But we cannot make a transition directly
from false perception to pure knowledge. We have to go through the stage of
corrected perception. We can't skip steps. The Text says it clearly:
"Perception must be straightened out before you can know anything"
(T-3.III.1:2). That is what miracles are for: correcting our perception.
Once our perception is corrected, God can take us the rest of the way, from
perception to knowledge.

	Redeemed perception is easily translated into knowledge, 
	for only perception is capable of error and perception has
	never been. Being corrected it gives place to knowledge,
	which is forever the only reality.	(T-12.VIII.8:6-7)

	Yet it [the miracle] paves the way for the return of
	timelessness and love's awakening, for fear must slip
	away under the gentle remedy it brings.	(1:6)

The "gentle remedy" of the miracle, in correcting our perception, "paves the
way" for a return to full knowledge. Without the undoing of our false
perception, we will resist knowledge and reject love; we will be afraid of
it. Our twisted perception of love, for instance, believes that love means
sacrifice, and that total love would mean total sacrifice. We therefore run
away from it; we fear it. Such perceptions need to be changed before we
would even be willing to let real love awaken within us. Because the miracle
removes our fear, it opens the way for love. It ends our resistance; it
removes the interference.