[acimlessons_list] Lesson 279 - October 6

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 279 - OCTOBER 6

Creation's freedom promises my own.

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.

COMMENTARY

Because creation is free, I am free. Because no one is bound, I am not
bound. <Now is freedom his already> (1:4). It is here and now. Freedom is
not future.

As I recognize the freedom that belongs to everyone, I find my own. In
giving, I receive. In loving, I am loved. In healing, I am healed. In
recognizing the existence of absolute perfection I experience my
participation in that perfection, and I am most aware of it when I am
recognizing Christ in my brothers.

Yesterday's lesson was the inverse of this: <If I am bound, my Father is not
free.> When we accept the apparent prison we are in we are saying God is
imprisoned. If I see no way out, then God must be stymied too. Here again it
becomes plain that:

          As I see my brother, so I see myself. 
          As I see myself, so I see God.

The simplicity of this lesson is staggering. Everything keeps coming back to
this.

Why do some people fear God? Why does the concept, the very word, scare them
away? It is because they see God in their own image; we always do. If I see
myself as threatening, I see God that way. If I see myself as weak and
ineffective, I see God that way. I am running from my own idols, not from
the truth.
          
          Only in dreams is there a time when he appears 
          to be in prison, and awaits a future freedom, if it be at all.
(1:2) 

We can understand how we can be perfectly free, safe at home in bed, and in
our sleep, dream of imprisonment. That exactly describes our experience in
this world. We are already free, but dreaming we are imprisoned. Salvation,
to the Course, is simply becoming aware that we are dreaming, and that the
freedom we think we lack is already ours. We become aware of it through
recognizing it in others.

What are we seemingly imprisoned by? Of what do our chains consist? Are they
not chains of guilt? <The Holy Spirit knows that all salvation is escape
from guilt> (T-14.III.13:4). To see my brother as free is to see him without
guilt; in other words, forgiveness. That is how escape from guilt happens:
when I realize that creation itself is free from guilt, that everyone is
guiltless, I recognize that I must be included. It works this way because
what I perceive as the world is a projection of my own self-judgment: <The
world you see is but a judgment on yourself> (T-20.III.5:2). In lifting
judgment and guilt from the world I am lifting it from myself because what I
see is only a reflection of how I see myself.

          Creation's freedom promises my own.

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 9: W-pII.6.5:1-2

When we see <this holy face> (5:1), the face of Christ, in everyone and
everywhere, we are seeing all creation as completely innocent, free from
guilt. This <true perception> will not last long, according to the Course,
because it is merely <the symbol that the time for learning now is over, and
the goal of the Atonement has been reached at last> (5:1). The face of
Christ symbolizes the end of the time for learning because what we are
learning is that we are without guilt, and that God's creation, His Son, is
without guilt. So when we see only the face of Christ, learning has achieved
its objective. It's graduation time!

If we believe we have a purpose in this world at all, we tend to think of it
as some great thing within time. We think, as a Southern Baptist friend of
mine used to say, that we are here to <do great wonders and eat cucumbers.>
(I never did figure out exactly what he meant by the last part, but it makes
the silliness of our other goals apparent.) But our only function here, the
Course tells us, is to learn forgiveness. We are not here to fix the world
but to forgive it. We are not here to become a great, world-renowned healer.
We are not here to establish a great spiritual teaching center. Our goal and
our function is not defined in terms of this world at all. <Your only
calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial
of guilt in all its forms> (T-14.V.3:5). That is the sole objective of our
learning. In the symbolism given here, it is to see the face of Christ.

     So therefore let us seek to find Christ's face and look on nothing
else.	(5:2) 

In all our seeking, seek only this. If I am starting a new job, what is my
purpose? To seek Christ's face, to deny guilt in all its forms. If I am
entering a new relationship, what is my purpose? To seek Christ's face; to
escape from guilt by seeing no guilt in my brother. If I am beginning some
new project under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, what is it for? To seek
Christ's face, to remove guilt from every mind I encounter. This is my sole
purpose in anything that I do. And only in accepting this as <the one
function that I would fulfill> (T-20.IV.8:4) will I find my happiness.