[acimlessons_list] Review VI, Lesson 220 - August 8

[Sue Roth]

Review VI, Lesson 220 - August 8

CENTRAL THEME:

"I AM NOT A BODY. I AM FREE. FOR I AM STILL AS GOD CREATED ME."

REVIEW OF:

(200) "THERE IS NO PEACE EXCEPT THE PEACE OF GOD."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See Review VI Practice Instructions.

COMMENTARY

To see ourselves as bodies is to be in conflict. Peace can be found only in
God. Searching for peace in the realm of the physical is doomed to failure,
because the body is an expression of conflict.

The prayer in this review lesson is about not wandering from "the way of
peace" (1:2). What might that mean? Obviously, it refers to any unpeaceful
state of mind, any thought of antagonism, or anger, or attack, or hatred.
The Course calls us to mental vigilance, watching our thoughts for anything
that opposes peace, and, as soon as such a thought is detected, bringing it
to the presence of the Holy Spirit for healing. We are told to think along
these lines: "This is not what I want. I want the peace of God." So when we
sense our thoughts moving into conflict mode, we respond. Perhaps we pray,
"Let me not wander from the way of peace" (1:2).

Wandering from the way of peace, however, includes more than overt attack.
The ego can disguise attack very subtly; indeed, the Course sees even our
special love relationships, our false forgiveness, and our ego's attempts at
empathy as veiled attacks. If there is no peace except God's peace, then to
seek for peace in some other way is really a hidden attachment to attack. If
there is only one road to my destination, and I choose not to follow the
road, I am choosing my destination's opposite. It is really seeking peace
through war, which is impossible. The ego, for instance, often seeks for
illusory peace through force, attempting to physically or mentally overpower
the situation. We cannot find peace by attempting to browbeat the world into
submission. On any such road, we are not moving toward peace; we are lost.

The way to God's peace is through following the Holy Spirit, "Him Who leads
me home" (1:3). When we try to solve our problems on our own, we are not
following the way to peace:

The ego always tries to preserve conflict. It is very ingenious in devising
ways that seem to diminish conflict, because it does not want you to find
conflict so intolerable that you will insist on giving it up.
(T-7.VIII.2:2-3)

Trying to use our own ingenuity to resolve conflict, then, is another way we
wander from the true road to peace.

When conflict seems to arise today, let me remember my lesson, that there is
no peace except the peace of God. Let me instantly seek peace, but not in my
own way. Let me turn to the Holy Spirit within and ask His direction.

When you feel the holiness of your relationship is threatened by anything,
stop instantly and offer the Holy Spirit your willingness, in spite of fear,
to let Him exchange this instant for the holy one you would rather have. He
will never fail in this. (T-18.V.6:1-2)