[acimlessons_list] Lesson 291 -October 18

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 291 - OCTOBER 18

"This is a day of stillness and of peace."

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

I write my comments on this lesson at the end of the day (so that it is
awaiting you in your morning e-mail).*  My day today seemed to be anything
but a day of stillness and peace, more like a day of staggering pace. I was
rushing about meeting my body's needs, stocking up on groceries I'd let run
down to nothing, buying some vitamins, razor blades, and so on. In the back
of my mind was a booklet waiting its finishing touches (and already behind
schedule), a flyer for an upcoming workshop, phone calls to make, a stack of
correspondence-school papers to read and respond to. I had lunch at 3:45 PM
and supper at 8:15. My details are different from yours, but I'm sure lots
of your days are similar in tone, if not in content.

We all have the demands of time and circumstance upon us. How do we find
inner peace in the midst of it? This lesson speaks of "Christ's vision,"
which "looks through me today" (1:1). "His sight shows me all things
forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world" (1:2). The
peace being spoken of here is the peace that comes from a different
perspective, an <inner> peace. Elsewhere the Course acknowledges that when
we live in this world we are involved in "busy doing" (T-18.VII.8:3). It
isn't that the busy doing ceases. It's that our mind can be at peace even in
the midst of busy doing, a "quiet center" from which we operate (same
reference).

I was not doing so well at maintaining that quiet center today, or rather,
at remembering it was there and making use of it; I was operating more on
the surface of my mind. As a result, I felt a little frantic. This lesson
calls me back to home base. The vision Christ offers me is one of loveliness
and holiness (1:4-5). It is the sight of a forgiven world, whose forgiveness
includes my own. It is the peace of knowing that, although I may forget the
toilet paper or fail to write the needed letter, my Self is unchanged, God
is my Father, and I share the holiness of God Himself.

In my hyper-activity today there was a certain sense that, somehow, my
salvation depended on remembering everything I had to buy or finishing all
the tasks I hoped to accomplish. What a relief to know I was wrong! Even in
my study of the Course, sometimes, an anxiety creeps in, thinking I have to
understand everything perfectly in order to find my way home. Instead, as I
read this lesson, I can relax:
          I do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain. 
          Father, guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. 
          Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of 
          You return to me.	(2:3-6)

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 1: W-pII.8.1:1-2

The Course's discussion of the term "real world" is somewhat paradoxical.
We've read its statement, earlier in the Workbook, that "There is no world!"
(W-pI.132.6:2). How, then, can there be a real world? It even admits there
is a contradiction in the term (see T-26.III.3:3). And here we are told, in
the opening statement on the topic, "The real world is a symbol" (1:1). A
symbol is not the thing it represents; it only stands for something else, as
the word "tree" stands for the object we call by that name. The real world
is only a symbol, "like the rest of what perception offers" (1:1).

The word "tree" is not a tree. Likewise, the real world is not the thing it
represents or stands for. It only symbolizes it. What does the real world
symbolize or stand for? "Yet it stands for what is opposite to what you
made" (1:2). We made separation; the real world symbolizes unity (but is not
itself that unity). We made fear; the real world symbolizes love (but is not
itself that love). We made error; the real world symbolizes truth (but is
not itself that truth).

The world itself is nothing but a symbol of a thought. It can symbolize the
thought of fear, or it can symbolize the thought of love. It can, in our
perception, consist of "witnesses to fear" or witnesses to love
(W-pII.7.2:2). The world itself is not the reality of anything; it merely
stands for something that exists in the mind, as all perception does. It is
"the outside picture of an inward condition" (T-21.In.1:5). What changes in
the transformation effected by the Holy Spirit is not the world itself, but
how we see it; what it symbolizes for us. This is why the message of the
Course to us is this: "Seek not to change the world, but choose to change
your mind about the world" (T-21.In.1:7).
The real world that we seek, and which is the goal of the Course for us, is
not, then, a changed world, but a changed perception of the world.
~~~
* I have left this sentence almost exactly as it first appeared when the
lesson commentaries were first mailed out by electronic mail on the
Internet, in order to preserve the original feel of immediacy in the whole
paragraph.