From suelegal at gmail.com  Tue Sep  2 05:00:48 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 05:00:48 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 246 - September 3
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAABMTfp3jPiNPq09ML37N3FYBAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



Lesson 246 - September 3

"To love my Father is to love His Son."

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: I suggest applying this idea specifically to people in
your life throughout the day. Say, <"To love my Father is to love His Son,
[name]."> You might want to add, <"Let me not think that I can attack the
Son and still know the Father.">

COMMENTARY

We can't love God without loving what He created. The Apostle John, in his
epistles, said very much the same thing as today's lesson:

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath
not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love
his brother also. (1 John 4:20-21)

The "Son of God" in the Course refers not simply to Jesus, nor just to all
our brothers and sisters; it also includes ourselves. The measure of the
quality of relationship we have with God is the relationships we have with
those around us, and with ourselves. Our love for our brothers and sisters
reflects the love we have for God. "Let me not think that I can find the way
to God, if I have hatred in my heart" (1:1). If in some way I am wishing
harm to my brother, I cannot know God, nor can I even know my Self (1:2).
And if I am, in my mind, diminishing <myself>, I who am God's own Son, I
will be unable to truly know God's Love for me, or mine for Him (1:3).

The ego is a thought of attack; it believes it has attacked God and
succeeded. And yet it sees that battle reflected in everyone around us, and
projects its fear and its attack onto everything, often in subtle disguises,
some even bearing the name of "love."

Let me be open to discovering the "little" bits of hatred that still lie in
my heart--especially those directed at myself. There are far more than I
would like to believe. The Text teaches me that uncovering the hatred within
myself is "crucial" (T-13.III.1:1). It tells me, "You must realize that your
hatred is in your mind and not outside it before you can get rid of it"
(T-12.III.7:10). The scraps of hatred I clutch to me must be seen for what
they are, and chosen against. With a deliberate act of will I need to say,
"I choose to love Your Son" (2:4). The choice for love is the choice for God
and the choice for my Self.

What Is the World?

PART 6: W-PII.3.3:3-5

The "mechanisms of illusion" are what make this world seem so real. They
include even our eyes and ears, and all our physical senses:

The body's eyes see only form. They cannot see beyond what they were made to
see. And they were made to look on error and not see past it.
(T-22.III.5:3-5)

When we view things with the ego's perception, illusions seem solid; the
separation of the ego seems to be nothing but the truth (3:4). To see with
the vision of Christ, to see the oneness instead of the separation, we need
to be willing to discount what our eyes are showing us, because "they were
made to look on error." "Everything that they report is but illusion which
is kept apart from truth" (3:5). The miracle enables us to see what eyes see
not; it lifts our perception into the realm of the spiritual, away from the
physical (see T-1.I.22 and T-1.I.32).

We need to be willing to question what our senses seem to make real, and to
be willing to perceive, with a different kind of vision, something else
entirely. We have been victims of a very clever and very successful
propaganda campaign, conducted by the master of disinformation--the ego. We
need to realize that nothing we have believed to be true and counted upon as
solid reality can be trusted; everything must be called to question. We have
been surrounded by a conspiracy of lies, emanating from within our own mind.
We have misdirected our senses until we became unconscious of what we were
doing, but we can, today, redirect them. We can choose to look for evidence
of love, instead of hate; for peace instead of attack. We can say:

Above all else I want to see things differently. (W-pI.28.Heading)




From suelegal at gmail.com  Tue Sep  2 21:41:51 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 21:41:51 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 245 - September 2
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAALCm6d2bkZ1Pok43DJRhCp4BAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



Lesson 245 - September 2

"Your peace is with me, Father. I am safe."

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.

COMMENTARY

God's peace is <always> with me, and I am always safe. It isn't a sometime
thing. God's peace is with me <now> and always. Unrest is always something I
am superimposing on the underlying peace, which never leaves me. Unrest is a
false perception; peace is reality. If I am willing to stop, to say, "Peace!
Be still!" to the storm in my mind, God's peace is always there, waiting to
be discovered.

I am surrounded by God's peace (1:1). It goes with me wherever I go (1:2). I
bring it with me, and I can "shed its light on everyone I meet" (1:3). I can
be, as St. Francis prayed, an instrument of His peace, bringing it "to the
desolate and lonely and afraid" (1:4). Oh, I want that to be what I am
today! I want to be willing to pray, "Send them to me, my Father" (1:6). Let
me hear the lesson of the Holy Spirit, "To have peace, teach peace to learn
it" (T-6.V(B)). As I bring peace to those "bereft of hope and happiness"
(1:5) I will find it in myself (2:2-3). I will recognize my Self. I will
hear the Voice for God. I will recognize Your Love.

Today, if I do not feel Your peace within me, let me bring it to someone
else who needs it. In so doing, I will recognize its presence in myself.

What Is the World?

Part 5: W-pII.3.3:1-2

"The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead" (3:1), instead of
certainty (2:7). The mechanisms of illusion include not only our eyes and
ears, our physical perceptive organs, but also the mechanisms of the mind
that interpret and adjust what is perceived to fit the patterns being looked
for. We see what we expect to see, what we want to see. I was discussing,
just last night, the very strange "blind spot" in our eyes. All of us have
it. There is a place on the retina (where the optic nerve attaches to it)
that does not pick up the light shining through the lens. The very strange
thing is this: the mind "fills in" the blind spot with what "ought" to be
there. None of us see a blank spot at the side of our vision, but it is
there; the mind simply makes up what it thinks should be there! This is a
"mechanism of illusion" indeed! And our mind "makes up" what "ought" to be
there far more often then we realize.

The whole process of perception is a process of illusion. Our mind sends out
its information gatherers "to find what has been given them to seek" (3:2).
The mind tells them, "Find evidence of guilt," and Lo! They find it. "Find
evidence of attack." They bring it back. "Find evidence of separation." They
produce it. The ego sees only what it wants to see. And the ego's purpose in
perception is to witness and make real the absence of love, to demonstrate
that God is not here, and that we <are> here, apart from Him.





From sue at circleofa.org  Wed Sep  3 06:09:30 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2008 06:09:30 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 248 - September 5
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAACLt61J+sUxCk4aZupco8aEBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



Lesson 248 - September 5

"WHATEVER SUFFERS IS NOT PART OF ME."

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: As a response to temptation, notice something that is
upsetting you, and repeat the idea, specifying the emotion you are feeling:
<"Whatever worries [or grieves, or is afraid, or is angry, etc.] is not part
of me.">

COMMENTARY

The title of this lesson is interesting to me because I have just finished
writing an article about our mistaken identity, and the need the Course
speaks of for us to <separate> from our egos. (No, the Course does not
always put a negative spin on the world "separation"; see, for instance,
T-22.II.6:1.) The lesson affirms that whatever suffers is not really a part
of me at all. This <must> be true if I am the Son of God, and the Son of God
"cannot suffer" (W-pII.244.1:3). What I really am cannot suffer; therefore,
"whatever suffers is not part of me."

Now, be honest. If we think for only a moment about the suffering, of
various kinds, that we have experienced in our lives, one thing is pretty
certain: We were quite sure <we> were suffering. Not some thing that isn't
even part of ourselves, but <us>. To take a mild example, when I get the
flu, <I> feel miserable. It isn't somebody else being miserable; it isn't
anything I can even conceive of separating from (although I certainly have
wished that I could!). That is how it seems. Is this proof that the Course
is wrong? Or is it evidence of how completely we are still identified with
our egos and our bodies?

The lesson is asking us to begin to learn to disengage ourselves from our
egos and our bodies. "I have disowned the truth. Now let me be as faithful
in disowning falsity" (1:1-2).

Then follows a series of statements in which we deliberately distinguish our
Self from that which experiences various things the Course sees as illusion:
suffering, grief, pain, and death. The statement about death is particularly
strong: "What dies was never living in reality, and did but mock the truth
about myself" (1:6).

It is especially difficult to practice this kind of lesson when we are "in
the frying pan." Yet if we are willing, it can be curiously comforting. For
instance, if I am going through grief, and I am able to say, "What grieves
is not myself" (1:4) it can be helpful. Notice: this is not denial in the
negative sense. I am not saying, "I do not really feel grief." I am saying,
"What grieves" (and there is the acknowledgement of the grief) "is not
myself." I am not denying the grief; I am denying that grief is me. I am
recognizing that the thing that is feeling grief is not really who I am; it
is a false image of myself, an illusion of myself I have identified with,
but it is not truly myself. When grief feels as if it would swallow me
whole, and engulf me so that I disappear into it, the realization that "what
grieves is not myself" can be reassuring. And certainly in facing physical
death, to know that what dies is not myself can be comforting.

This disowning of falsity, disowning "self-concepts and deceits and lies
about the holy Son of God" (1:7), prepares us to welcome back our true Self.
As I realize that none of these dark things affects Who I really am, "my
ancient love for [God] returns" (2:1). That love is blocked and suppressed
when I believe that what suffers <is> me; I blame God for my suffering,
consciously or unconsciously, and cannot find it in myself to truly love
Him. Down below the level of consciousness, every little bit of suffering,
grief, and pain we experience in this world is laid at God's feet, and we
point an accusing finger in His direction. We think He wanted this for us.
When we begin to disengage ourselves from our bodies and egos, when we begin
to realize that our Self is not suffering, we can remember God's Love, and
love Him in return. "I am as You created me" (2:2); nothing has been
damaged. Nothing has been lost. God has never been angry. And we can reunite
our love with God's, and understand that they are one (2:4).

What Is the World?

PART 8: W-PII.3.4:3-5

So, then, rather than following the evidence of our senses, the "proof" the
ego wants us to see that we are alone and separate, we can turn to "Follow
His Light, and see the world as He beholds it" (4:3). I find that this is
most often, especially at the beginning, a case of first seeing as the ego
sees, realizing it is an illusion, and then asking the Holy Spirit to help
me see differently. Some event occurs--for instance someone close to me
criticizes something I am doing--and at first I see it through the ego's
eyes. I see attack. I feel hurt. I feel angry. But God's Voice speaks to me,
and reminds me that "I am never upset for the reason I think"
(W-pI.5.Heading). And so I turn to Him and say, "Okay, Holy Spirit." And I
add:

<I do not know what anything, including this, means. And so I do not know
how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as the light
to guide me now>. (T-14.XI.6:7-9)

I ask Him to show me how He sees it. And He always sees everything as either
an expression of love or a call for love, both of which can be answered only
with love. If I truly open my mind to Him, and <let go> of how I am seeing
the situation, His vision will replace my seeing.

"Hear His voice alone in all that speaks to you" (4:4). The Holy Spirit is
speaking to us all the time; He is speaking to us through our brothers and
sisters, and through the events of our lives. The call for help in our
brothers is the Voice of the Holy Spirit calling to us to be ourselves, to
be the love that we are. Behind every illusion is the Voice for God,
constantly calling us to reclaim our Identity and to respond as the saviors
of the world that we are.

He will give us peace and certainty (4:5). We threw them away, but He kept
them safe for us and will return them to us whenever we are willing to have
them again. Our peace and certainty will not come from the world; they never
have come from the world and never will. They will come from His vision of
the world, however. "When you want only love, you will see nothing else"
(T-12.VII.8:1). If we disregard all the ego's evidence, and let the Holy
Spirit interpret all we see, we will see an entirely different world than
the one we have been seeing. And this world, the real world, will fill us
with peace and certainty.




From sue at circleofa.org  Wed Sep  3 20:13:59 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2008 20:13:59 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 247 - September 4
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAIW/Hs8aVFZHqj2QIvWqAkQBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



Lesson 247 - September 4

"WITHOUT FORGIVENESS I WILL STILL BE BLIND."

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: Choose someone in your life whom you have been judging
or failing to appreciate, and say to this person:

<Without forgiving you, [name], I will still be blind.

Brother, come and let me look on you with my now open eyes.

Your loveliness reflects my own.

Your sinlessness is mine.

You stand forgiven, and I stand with you>.

COMMENTARY

All unforgiveness is, in reality, of myself. Today I am seeing a more subtle
form of unforgiveness. Perhaps I am willing to admit that my unloving or
unjoyful feeling in the present is due to my own wanting and choosing <in
the past>. If I am truly looking at my ego without judgment, though, I will
be able to admit that I am feeling loveless or joyless now because I am
choosing those feelings <now>, in the present. If I cannot do that, I am
still listening to the voice of guilt.

For a brief instant, sin and Atonement must lie on the altar together. The
guilt must be brought to the present to be healed.

If I avoid seeing my identification with ego in the present, if I avoid
seeing my guilt in the present, then I am blinding myself. Avoiding seeing
the ego in the present means, very simply--due to the perfect power of my
mind--that I <never see it> in the present. I stumble through life blind to
my ego in the present moment. I am always caught off guard. Again and again
the ego trips me up, and I stumble and fall, saying stupidly, "Oh! That must
have been my ego!"

In order to say "yes" to God, I must recognize that I am, right now, saying
"no." "'Yes' must mean 'not no'" (T-21.VII.12:4). It isn't so much that I
need to say "yes" as I need to notice I'm saying "no." When I notice that
fact, I will stop. And when my "no" stops, the peace that was always there
becomes conscious. To say "no" to the "no," to deny the denial, is the way
we say "yes." But I can't say "no" to the "no" until I admit I'm saying "no"
in the first place!

One piece of unerring evidence that I have not owned my guilt is that I will
still be projecting it. I will still be making excuses for myself, talking
about my weakness, feeling that I'll "never make it." Or I'll be caught up
in wanting others to admit their own responsibility for the situation in the
relationship. If someone tries to get me to see my responsibility for
things, I'll feel attacked, even if it is done in true love. I will be
saying things like "I didn't realize what I was doing," or "I wasn't aware
of attacking you at the time." I will still feel that, while I may have
acted from my ego, so did you--and you'd damn well better admit it.

"I was not aware" or "I didn't realize what I was doing" is not an excuse!
If I was not aware, there is only one reason--I was choosing to be not
aware. I have formed a habit of refusing to see my guilt in the present, and
so, in each present moment, I live in unawareness of my ego thoughts.

The terror of looking at the ego now is so great that the instant I begin to
become aware I want to project my ego into the past, to push it away and
deny that I am now identified with it. But healing occurs only in the
present. The horror of the ego, the desire to separate myself and to murder
my brother must be seen <now> in order to be healed. When I can allow that,
the healing is instant. Brought into the present, guilt encounters the Holy
Spirit and Atonement, for that is the only place Atonement lives, and that
is all that lives in the present. The guilt is here and then gone, flashing
out of existence. Guilt cannot exist in the presence of Atonement, any more
than darkness can exist in the light.

If I am seeing anything but total innocence in my brothers, I am hiding
guilt in myself. There is no guilt but my own. And when I see that, there is
no guilt at all.

What Is the World?

PART 7: W-PII.3.4:1-2

Though our sight was made to lead away from truth, "it can be redirected"
(4:1). The ego's purpose for perception can be replaced with a new purpose,
that of the Holy Spirit. "Yet we have learned that the Holy Spirit has
another use for all the illusions you have made, and therefore He sees
another purpose in them" (W-pI.64.2:2). "The Holy Spirit teaches you to use
what the ego has made, to teach the opposite of what the ego has 'learned'"
(T-7.IV.3:3). So the Holy Spirit teaches us to use our eyes and ears not to
see separation and the absence of God, but to see oneness and His Presence
in everything.

Sounds become the call for God, and all perception can be given a new
purpose by the One Whom God appointed Savior to the world. (4:2)

The preceding discussion might make us think that, since our eyes were made
to see error, they are now useless. But the Holy Spirit will use everything
the ego has made. He uses our bodies as communication devices. He uses our
special relationships to teach us forgiveness and love and union. He uses
our learning ability (made to learn error) to teach us the truth. He uses
the whole world as a classroom of forgiveness and a mirror of Heaven. There
is nothing the ego has done that cannot be used by the Holy Spirit. So in
the end, there is no loss whatsoever, because all the ego's energies have
been "recycled" by the Holy Spirit for His own purposes.




From sue at circleofa.org  Fri Sep  5 05:54:02 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 05:54:02 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 249 - September 6
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAIQ5KL39WS1Op3aGAj+mXH0BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>


Lesson 249 - September 6

"Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss."

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: Again I would recommend applying the idea specifically.
Pick a person in your life and say, <"My forgiveness of [name] ends all
suffering and loss.">

COMMENTARY

Unforgiveness is painful. There is a tightening, a hardening, an armoring of
the heart. It hurts to shut someone out of my heart. Forgiveness ends that
suffering, that pain, that loss, that aloneness.

To believe that forgiveness ends <all> suffering and loss is not that easy.
It still seems that some of my pain is not related to unforgiveness; yet it
is, all of it:

Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness. Yet
that is the content underneath the form. (W-pI.193.4:1-2)

If I do not suffer and have no loss, if I forgive in the sense the Course
speaks of so that I see that there was no sin, that I was not hurt, and that
I lost nothing, then "anger makes no sense" (1:1). If there is no anger,
there is no attack. If forgiveness were accepted by the minds of all of
us--forgiveness received as well as given--there would be no more suffering,
no more loss.

The world becomes a place of joy, abundance, charity and endless giving.
(1:5)

This is how I will see the world when I look with the eyes of Christ. Jesus,
even when he was being crucified, saw the world in this way, and his heart
held nothing but "charity and endless giving" for those who condemned him
and drove in the nails.

To see the "real world" does not mean that suddenly everyone around us
becomes transformed into angelic beings. Jesus saw the real world and he was
crucified. But he did not suffer, nor did he lose! He was no longer
identified with his body; he knew that the body could not die because it was
never alive, so he was not losing his life. Likewise for us, attaining the
real world through forgiveness does not mean that all our life becomes a
flower-strewn pathway to glory. There may be resistance. There may be those
who attempt to harm us. Our bodies may still become sick. Loved ones will
still die, cars will still be stolen, houses will still burn down, jobs will
still be lost. The healed mind will not see loss, nor experience suffering,
knowing that "nothing real can be threatened" (T-In.2:2).

I do believe that as more and more minds embrace forgiveness, the physical
reflection of those minds will transform as well, becoming more peaceful,
more loving, more abundant, more full of kindness and charity. The
transformation of the physical reflection, however, is a side-benefit, not
the goal. It is our <minds> that we return to God.

When our minds have reached this height of true perception, Heaven is very
near. The world will quickly be "transformed into the light that it
reflects" (1:6).

Let me, then, return my mind to God today. Let me release myself from the
vise of bitterness, and ease my mind of its fear of violence and death. Let
me rest myself in God today. Let me forgive all things that seem to wish me
harm, and in so doing, free myself from suffering. May I be free of
suffering today. May I be at peace.

What Is the World?

Part 9: W-pII.3.5:1-2

Although the Course says, "The world is false perception" (1:1), the Course
does not disdain the world. On the contrary, Jesus calls to us: "Let us not
rest content until the world has joined our changed perception" (5:1). We do
not just turn our backs on the world, shake its dust off our feet, and walk
away. Indeed, we cannot do that even if we want to, because the world is a
part of ourselves, our guilt, the pieces of ourselves we have rejected,
projected out and given form. If I am to be saved, the world must be saved,
because the world is myself.

Salvation, to be salvation, must be complete. Nothing can be left out. "Let
us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete" (5:2). We are
asked not to rest content, not to be satisfied with our individual
salvation. "Individual salvation" is an oxymoron; an impossibility.
Separation is hell; salvation is oneness. How can I, apart from you, be
saved, if salvation is the end of separateness?

There is a tendency among Course students, especially with the emphasis on
its supposedly being a "self-study course," to become introverted and
occupied with one's own spiritual development, and pretty much unconcerned
with bringing the rest of the world to join our changed perception. The idea
that we are called to save the world, which is a <major emphasis> throughout
the Course, seems somehow to get lost in the shuffle. "Oh, isn't that making
the illusion real? Isn't saying that our calling is to bring light to the
darkness some kind of betrayal of the Course's nondualistic teaching? Don't
we bring our darkness to the light?" Jesus doesn't seem to think the one
excludes the other. Read these two sentences again. Or hear these words from
the Text:

You who are now the bringer of salvation have the function of bringing light
to darkness. The darkness in you has been brought to light. Carry it back to
darkness, from the holy instant to which you brought it. (T-18.III.7:1-3)

Over and over, the Course points out that we cannot become certain, we
cannot fully recognize the truth in ourselves, until we share it with
others. "To give is how to recognize you have received" (W-pI.159.1:7). To
turn our backs on the world is to leave the unforgiveness in our minds
unhealed. Our task is not to preach to the world, nor to argue it into
agreement with us, nor to "convert" everyone. Our task is to forgive the
world, to open our hearts to the world in love. It is to erase guilt from
every mind through our forgiveness. It is, in thought, in word, and in deed,
to communicate the message which the Course says is central to its aim: "The
Son of God is guiltless" (T-13.I.5:1; M-1.3:5; M-27.7:8).

There is no conflict in this curriculum, which has one aim however it is
taught. Each effort made on its behalf is offered for the single purpose of
release from guilt, to the eternal glory of God and His creation. And every
teaching that points to this points straight to Heaven, and the peace of
God. (T-14.V.6:3-5)

And we are called not to be satisfied, not to rest content, until
forgiveness is complete, and guilt has been lifted from every troubled mind.





From sue at circleofa.org  Sat Sep  6 07:53:47 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2008 07:53:47 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 250 - September 7
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAFH471sOeZhKkMQtnswxaEcBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



Lesson 250 - September 7

"LET ME NOT SEE MYSELF AS LIMITED."

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: You may want to try this active exercise before you
enter meditation. Choose someone in your life, and apply the following lines
to that person:

Let me behold the Son of God in [name].

Let me witness his glory.

Let me see his holy light and not my darkness.

Let me see his strength and not his frailty.

Let me see his sovereignty and not attack it with lacks that I perceive.

Let me behold his gentleness and not the illusion of harmfulness I laid on
him.

For by seeing him as limitless, I will see myself as limitless.

COMMENTARY

There is really nothing to see but myself. If I see those around me as
limited, I am seeing myself that way, for "as I see him so I see myself"
(2:3). The lesson is not talking so much about the kind of limitlessness
that is touted in self-help seminars ("I can do anything I set my mind to--I
can achieve all my goals") as it is talking about the limitations we place
on holiness, goodness, and love when we view others and ourselves. Do I see
my brothers and sisters today as the Son of God in glory? Or do I see them
with "strength diminished and reduced to frailty" (1:2)? Do I see the holy
light (1:2) shining in all those around me, or is it obscured by the
darkness I have projected onto them? Do I behold the sovereignty of God's
Son, or do I continue to attack that majesty by perceiving lacks where there
are none?

If I am honest with myself, I will be aware of how consistently I perceive
lack in everyone, or almost everyone, I meet. Nobody quite lives up to my
high standards. My mind is constantly comparing myself to others as well,
and perceiving lacks in me. The perception of lack is one: as I see myself I
see others; as I see others I see myself. Does the problem perhaps lie in
the perceiver, and not in what is being perceived?

Yet I can choose a different perception; I can choose to see with the vision
of Christ. I can choose to see light, to see love, to see gentleness. Let
this be my choice today, Father. When I become aware that I am perceiving
your Son as less than You created him to be (in others or myself), let me
recognize those thoughts as illusions born of fear, and bring them to Your
Love. I choose today to watch my mind for these scraps of fear, and to ask
Your Spirit to step around them to reveal what they have been hiding from my
sight (see T-4.III.7:4-5).

Today I would see truly, that this day I may at last identify with him.
(2:4)

What Is the World?

PART 10: W-PII.3.5:3-5

We are not to rest or to be satisfied until forgiveness has been made
complete, and all the world has joined our changed perception. And in
addition:

Let us not attempt to change our function. We must save the world. (5:3-4)

Have you noticed how often the Course talks about our function or our
purpose? The word "purpose" occurs 666 times in the Course; the word
"function," 460 times. Some of those occurrences, of course, refer to other
things, such as the function of the Holy Spirit, but a vast majority of them
are referring to <our> function:

<I am the light of the world. That is my only function. That is why I am
here>. (W-pI.61.5:3-5)

There is no other reason for being in this world, except to be its light.
There is no other reason to live on earth except to save the world, and to
bring forgiveness to every mind. In fulfilling my function I find my
happiness: "My happiness and my function are one" (W-pI.66.Heading). In
fulfilling my function I discover the light within myself: "It is through
accepting my function that I will see the light in me" (W-pI.81.3:2).
Fulfilling our function is an integral and key part of the Course's program
for our own enlightenment.

Why would we "attempt to change" our function? What are the ways we do that?
We attempt to change our function when we try to find some other purpose for
living in the world, whether it be career, family, pleasure, power, or
anything that is "of" the world. And we do so in an insane attempt to make
this world a substitute for God, to make the illusion real and thus
substantiate our ego identity. "We must save the world." This is our only
function; this is the only purpose for the world itself and for me in it.
"The healing of God's Son is all the world is for" (T-24.VI.4:1).

This does not mean that everyone must enter a recognized "healing
profession," although some of us may indeed do so. (The Manual says that
immediate changes in life situations are asked of only a small minority; see
Section 9.) Rather, it means we must learn to translate every profession
into a healing profession ("The Atonement...is the natural profession of the
children of God," T-1.III.1:10). As Marianne Williamson says, every job can
become a front for a church. Our first priority is the healing of our minds
and attitudes, especially in our relationships, right where we are.

Our function is to behold the world through the eyes of Christ (5:5). We
made the world. We made it to die. It is our responsibility now to restore
it to everlasting life (5:5).




From sue at circleofa.org  Sun Sep  7 10:08:22 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2008 10:08:22 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 251 - September 8
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAIOaWPnoSFFCivadVigcS3gBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>


Lesson 251 - September 8

"I AM IN NEED OF NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH."

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 suggestions: The first paragraph of this lesson is one of my
favorites in the entire Course. I have memorized it and enjoy repeating it
to myself from time to time. You may want to do the same (if memorizing it
would be too much, you can write it out on a card and carry it with you).

For response to temptation, I suggest identifying the unmet need that is
behind your upset and saying, <"I think I need [specify the need], but I am
in need of nothing but the truth.">

COMMENTARY

Any one of us could, if asked, sit down right now and write a fairly long
list of things we think we need. Even if we restrict ourselves to things we
don't presently have, the list would be fairly extensive. For instance, I
need more memory on my computer (what computer owner doesn't?); I need new
pajamas; I need some dental work; I need a new bookcase; I need a new
mattress and box spring; I need a new pair of jeans; I need a better guitar.

At various times in my life, I've believed that I needed to be married, or
needed to be divorced. I needed a better job. I needed a brand new car, one
that would not break down all the time. I needed to move. "I sought for many
things, and found despair" (1:1). I got most of what I was looking for
(never got quite all the money I wanted), but none of it made me happy. And
I know, with all the lists I can make of things I now "need," none of them
will make me happy, either.

Happiness is a choice I make. Nothing more, nothing less.

I think the reason why the Course appeals to me so much is that I can relate
to things like this lesson so well. Oh, I still make the mistake of thinking
something I "need" will bring happiness, but when I find myself thinking
that way, at least now I know I'm just kidding myself. I can honestly say,
when I pause to reflect, "Now do I seek but one, for in that one is all I
need, and only what I need" (1:2). I wander from that single direction
sometimes, I get suckered into going after something else, but I keep on
coming back to this one, central need, which is really the <only> need I
have: the truth. The truth about myself, about God, about the universe. That
which is real and everlasting.

Some of the things I sought before "I needed not, and did not even want"
(1:3). I usually found that out after I had them. I recall one night,
several years ago, when I was sitting home, alone, watching TV. I got the
munchies, so I got up to get something. I looked at the ice cream in the
fridge and thought, "No, that's not what I want." I looked at fruit, at
crackers and cheese, at popcorn, and with each one found myself saying, "No,
that's not what I want." Finally, literally scratching my head, I stood in
the middle of the kitchen and said aloud, "What is it I really want?" And it
hit me like a ton of bricks. What I really wanted was God. I was feeling
some kind of emptiness inside, and my little mind was translating that into
physical craving of some sort, trying to find a way to fill the emptiness by
means of my body. I actually laughed out loud! I suddenly realized that all
my "needs" and "wants" were substitutes for that one thing I really needed,
which was something I always had, only waiting for me to choose to recognize
it.

How can we ever be at peace when all our lives are filled with an endless
list of cravings? Can we not begin to see that the craving itself is a form
of unhappiness? That each thing I think I need that I do not have is a
burden, a nagging pain in the back of my mind, keeping me from peace? What I
really want is the peace. What I really want is to be at peace within
myself, content with Who I am. I want fulfillment. I want completion. And
these things are <instantly> available, whenever I choose them. They are
granted or withheld not by anything external, but only by my own choice.

And now at last I find myself at peace.

<And for that peace, our Father, we give thanks. What we denied ourselves
You have restored, and only that is what we really want>. (1:9-2:2)

What is Sin?

PART 1: W-PII.4.1:1-3

"Sin" is the belief that I am evil, corrupted somehow by the mistakes I have
made, and forever disfigured by my misguided thoughts. "Sin" is the belief
that the perfect creation of a perfect God can somehow become imperfect,
warped and twisted and unworthy of its Creator. "Sin is insanity" (1:1).

Out of this belief comes guilt, which drives us mad, and leads us to seek
for illusions to take the place of truth (1:2). This is the source of the
world we see: "The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad
by guilt" (T-13.In.2:2). This is the cause behind the illusion. Because of
guilt we are afraid of the truth, afraid of God, afraid of our Self. We
believe we have forfeited Heaven, and so we must make up another place where
we can, or at least can hope we can, find satisfaction. Such is this world.
Because of sin we believe we cannot have Heaven, so we make a substitute.

Because of the madness induced by sin and guilt, we see "illusions where the
truth should be, and where it really is" (1:3). We hallucinate. We see
attack in love. We see love in attack. We seek satisfaction in mirages. We
seek eternal happiness in things that wither and die.

Our healing begins when we begin to recognize illusions as illusions. This
can be a time of great despair, when everything we thought we could trust in
turns to dust. Yet it is the beginning of wisdom, the start of a great
awakening.

The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their
effects as is the truth. A madman thinks the world he sees is real, and does
not doubt it. Nor can he be swayed by questioning his thoughts' effects. It
is but when their source is raised to question that the hope of freedom
comes to him at last. (W-pI.132.1:4-7)

We are surrounded by illusions, the effects of our thoughts. We do not truly
doubt the reality of those effects. Only when their source "is raised to
question," only when we begin to question the thought of sin that induces
our madness, will "the hope of freedom" begin to arise.





From sue at circleofa.org  Mon Sep  8 05:50:41 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 05:50:41 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 252 - September 9
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAABgJNDFYlu5OlsNLj4hRJSkBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



Lesson 252 - September 9

"The Son of God is my Identity."

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.

COMMENTARY

We don't know Who we are.

"My Self" is so much greater and higher than I can even imagine. The first
paragraph extols the holiness, the purity, the love, and the strength of my
Self. I am reminded of something I heard in an "est" weekend many years ago.
It spoke of becoming aware of the self I present to the world, my "mask"
(the Course calls it "the face of innocence" [T-31.V.2:6]); then,
discovering the self I am <afraid> that I am (the ego); and finally,
discovering who I really am, "which is magnificent" (the Son of God). Think
about that, my soul; let yourself hear it with acceptance: "I am
magnificent."

I am aware today that, no matter how high my thoughts go, I have only
scratched the surface of What and Who I really am. "My Self is holy beyond
all the thoughts of holiness of which I now conceive" (1:1). Let me sit and
dream thoughts of holiness, let me stretch my mind to its limits to
understand what holiness is; the reality of my holiness is "beyond all the
thoughts" I can conceive of. The Course says that if we could realize how
holy our brothers and sisters are, we could "scarce refrain from kneeling at
[their] feet" (W-pI.161.9:3). Yet we will take their hand instead, because
we are their equals. "They are all the same; all beautiful and equal in
their holiness" (T-13.VIII.6:1).

To realize that I am the holy Son of God entails the parallel realization
that you are the same. You are so beautiful, my friends; so ineffably holy!
You are the expression of God, the outshining of His Being, the glory of His
creation. How can I do anything but love you?

My Self, and yours, has a "shimmering and perfect purity" that is "far more
brilliant than any light that I have ever looked upon" (1:2). Have you ever
seen that in another being? Have you ever seen it <in yourself>? Ah, that is
what we all are seeking! It is what we are praying for: "Reveal It now to me
who am Your Son" (2:2). Imagine seeing and knowing such perfect purity in
your Self. Imagine it, and ask to have it revealed, for such you are.

And the <love> of this Self! It "is limitless, with an intensity that holds
all things within it, in the calm of quiet certainty" (1:3). Oh, to know
that this love is my Self! Oh, to know that this is what I am, forever and
forever! Can I, dare I, believe this about myself? My love, holding the
whole world, floating like a bubble in the ocean of my love. My love,
without limits of any kind. My love, the very Love of God Itself. Let me
dwell on it, let me consider it, let me give expression to it now, sending
my love to the whole world, to every being who longs for it. How intense it
is, this love! How perfect, how unquestioning, how overpowering!

The <strength> of my Self "comes not from burning impulses which move the
world, but from the boundless Love of God Himself" (1:4). What I am is this
Love, God's own Love. It is not a "burning" thing, a violence, an anger; it
is a quiet, calm, certain Love. It knows the reality of what It beholds. It
has perfect faith in every child of God, because of what they are. It
uplifts, it encourages, it believes in all that it beholds. Vast is Its
mercy; infinite Its understanding. Softly It embraces, gently It comforts,
Its power coming from the calm sureness of the inevitability of Love Itself.

How far beyond this world my Self must be, and yet how near to me and close
to God! (1:5)

Father, You know that this is Who I am, for You created me to be It. I long
to know this reality of my Self. I feel so much less than this, so unloving
at times. Reveal my Self to me. Show me that this is Who I am. Help me to
know my Self as Love. To know my Self as Love is Heaven; to know my Self as
Love is peace.

What is Sin?

Part 2: W-pII.4.1:4-9

Our very eyes are the product of sin: "Sin gave the body eyes" (1:4). Or as
the next paragraph says, "The body is the instrument the mind made in its
efforts to deceive itself" (2:1). Perception itself is the result of sin,
"for what is there the sinless would behold?" (1:4). Our true Self is beyond
perception entirely. Perception is inherently dualistic; "I" over here
perceive some object over there. It implies a separation. The sinless,
evidently, would have no desire for anything to perceive because nothing
would be separate. The desire to separate, to be apart and "objective" to
something else, is part and parcel of the concept of sin and guilt. The
sinless being, in the Course's view, would experience all things as part of
itself. It would "know" them rather than "perceive" them.

The sinless would have no need of sight or sound or touch because everything
would be part of itself; known, but not perceived. Perception is so limited.
So incomplete and imperfect. The sinless Self has no need of sense at all,
for everything is known to it. "To sense is not to know" (1:8). The purpose
of perception is <not to know>. Or better yet, the purpose of perception is
<to not know>. Perception is a separating, a standing off, a being apart
from. The consciousness of sin is what causes that withdrawal, that
contracting inward, away from unity.

Truth, by contrast, "can be but filled with knowledge, and with nothing
else" (1:9). Truth does not sense things; truth <knows> things. It knows
them by being one with them. I do not know you through perception.
Perception deceives me; that is its intent. Perception prevents me from
knowing you. I can only know you as I experience that I <am> you. This is
what happens in the holy instant, for the holy instant is an experience of
minds as one. Such an experience can be truly disorienting for a mind
habituated to its aloneness; the seeming identity we have grown used to for
all of our lives is suddenly gone, I am no longer certain whether I am me or
you. I realize for a moment that the "me" I thought I was may not, in fact,
truly exist. As it does not, in fact.

The consciousness of sin and guilt is what stands in the way of this joining
of minds. I hold myself apart from you in fear. I constrict my love, I doubt
yours. The Course is bringing us to the point where that fear dissolves, and
union, always there, is once again known for what it is.




From sue at circleofa.org  Tue Sep  9 06:10:54 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 06:10:54 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 253 - September 10
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAPjJfp4A+udKv4INsuDZ5skBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>


Lesson 253 - September 10

"MY SELF IS RULER OF THE UNIVERSE."

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: Pick an event where you felt powerless. Then say the
following lines to yourself:

<What happened is what I desired, on some level.

Even in this world, it is I who rule my destiny.

For in Heaven, my Self is ruler of the universe>.

COMMENTARY

Today's lesson is perhaps the most "outrageous" in the ego's eyes. There is
an odd paradox about the ego. Wanting to be ruler of the universe, it views
the actual assertion of that function to be the height of blasphemy.
Asserting that I am the ruler of the universe actually cuts the legs out
from under the ego, and destroys everything it stands on. The whole idea of
projection, or of finding blame for what is wrong outside myself, is done
away with.

Nothing comes to me that I have not asked for. "It is impossible" (1:1).
That seems a harsh truth. Lest we try to water it down, the lesson
immediately adds, "Even in this world, it is I who rule my destiny" (1:2).
Our fear of this truth is that it seems to make us incredibly guilty. The
Course is always asking that we take one hundred percent responsibility with
zero percent guilt.

What happens is what I desire. What does not occur is what I do not want to
happen. (1:3-4)

There is just no way to squirm out of what the Course is saying here. The
ego tells us that it makes us very guilty if we do this. In reality, it
gives us complete power over our lives. Consider what the alternative is to
these statements: "Things can happen no matter what I want. What does not
happen is not under my control." This belief system, which we all live by,
leaves us powerless, hopeless victims of things beyond our control. It is
the belief system of guilt, the attempt to avoid the reality of our Self,
which is all-powerful. It is the voice of the ego trying to place the blame
elsewhere, anywhere but within our own minds.

"My Self is ruler of the universe." This way lies freedom. "This must I
accept" (1:5). Please note that this does not speak of our "individual
self," the illusion of ourselves we all have made. It speaks of the "Self"
with a capital "S," the Self we share with all creation. It is our
collective Mind we speak of, the Mind of all of us. It is the individual
responsibility of each one of us to choose differently, to reverse the trend
within the Mind of the Sonship. In this view there is no one but Me, the one
Son of God. Each of us is responsible for the whole. Each of us <is> the
whole, for the whole is in every part.

We <must> accept the truth of today's lesson; it is the only way out of
hell. Anything less is the denial of our divinity, the assertion of the
reality of separation. Only in accepting this truth can we be "led past this
world to [our] creations" (1:6).

In the closing prayer, spoken to God, we say, "You are the Self Whom You
created Son, creating like Yourself and one with You" (2:1). God Himself is
our Self. We are His extension, more of Him, like Him, one with Him. My true
Self is simply my will in perfect union with God's, assenting to God's own
extension in me and through me (2:2). If God is my Self, and God is ruler of
the universe, so am I.

What does this mean in a practical sense? It means that I have to begin to
accept that I am responsible for everything I see, choosing my feelings,
asking for what happens to me (see T-21.II.2:3-5). It means that I see, in
every moment, it is up to me to choose to either suffer, or to be happy. It
means that I begin to deny the power of all things outside of me to affect
me. It means I accept my role as ruler of my own mind, first of all. I begin
to acknowledge the power of my wanting, and to know that "what is strong
enough to make a world can let it go" (see T-21.II.2-4).

What is Sin?

PART 3: W-PII.4.2:1-4

As we have seen already, "The body is the instrument the mind made in its
efforts to deceive itself" (2:1). The purpose of the body, as seen by the
ego, is "to strive" (2:2). To be in conflict and competition with other
bodies, often for other bodies. The body struggles, it carves out its
existence from the world through the sweat of its brow and through attack on
other bodies. Its law is the law of the jungle, "Kill or be killed"
(M-17.7:11).

Does this mean that the body is a hateful, evil thing, to be despised and
subdued? No. The <goal> of the body's striving can change (2:3). Given to
the ego, the goal is strife itself, with no real end. Strife keeps the ego
going. But given to the Holy Spirit, our striving can take on the goal of
truth, instead of lies.

The Holy Spirit can use everything the ego made to undo the purposes of the
ego. He can use our special relationships, our words and thoughts, the world
itself, and our bodies, all to serve the purposes of the truth. The key lies
in the changing of the goal, the purpose which the body, and everything
associated with it, serves. A special relationship becomes holy when its
purpose is changed from sin to holiness, from trying to find a completion we
think is lacking to striving to remember a completion we already have.

In the words of an old Christian hymn by Frances Ridley Havergill, we can
pray:

Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days;
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing
Ever, only, of my King.





From sue at circleofa.org  Wed Sep 10 05:56:40 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:56:40 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 254 - September 11
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAEnV7FSntUZEkrMOtZWkdAoBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



Lesson 254 - September 11

"Let every voice but God's be still in me."

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 comments: The prayer for this lesson is simply beautiful. It is one
of those prayers which, as in Lesson 221, announces an intention to come in
mental silence before God, asking to experience only the truth. I suggest
praying it many times as a way of entering into that state of quiet
meditation.

Notice the response to temptation instructions in paragraph 2. Throughout
the day, whenever you notice an ego thought, quietly step back and look at
it. Then let it go by declaring, <"Let every voice but God's be still in
me."> You don't want the effects of this thought, and so you choose to let
it go. With thoughts like this out of the way, you can then enter into
silence, where God speaks to you and tells you what you <really> want.

COMMENTARY

Silence. Inner silence as well as outer silence is something most of us are
not used to. When I lived in New Jersey, one of the things I used to notice
when I visited a rural area was the silence, particularly in the morning
around dawn. I was not aware of how continual the noise was where I lived
until it was absent. Trucks passing on a nearby highway, dogs barking,
televisions playing, boom boxes, sirens. Even the constant hum of air
conditioning or refrigerators. I was used to having a TV or radio or stereo
playing most of the time.

Even more difficult to tune out is the constant inner chatter of the mind.

The Course is constantly engaging us in the practice of silence. "In deepest
silence I would come to You" (1:2). Mental silence is an acquired habit; it
takes a great deal of practice, at least in my experience. Even when I
meditate my inclination is to use some words; perhaps to repeat a thought
from a lesson; or to invent some kind of mental instruction for myself, such
as "Breathing in love, breathing out forgiveness." My mind wants to engage
in a running commentary on my "silent" meditation. Lately, however, I have
found myself beginning with a simple instruction to myself, such as "Now let
me be silent," or "Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still." And then
just sitting for fifteen minutes or so, attempting to be completely still
and silent.

In silence, the lesson says, we can hear God's Voice and receive His Word.
If I seldom seem to receive anything concrete, the odds are that it is
because my attempts at silence are not yet terribly successful. But I am
practicing.

The lesson contains some specific instructions that seem to me to apply to
the question "What do I do with the thoughts that arise while I am
meditating?" The instructions are quite simple: "step back and look at them,
and then...let them go" (2:2). In mentally "stepping back" from my thoughts,
I am holding my awareness still in the silence. I am watching the thoughts
rather than engaging with them. This practice of <disengaging> ourselves
from our egos is a key practice. The thoughts arise. Rather than identifying
with them and playing with them, I step back. Rather than fighting against
them and resisting them, I simply step back. I recognize that I

do not want what they would bring with them. And so [I] do not choose to
keep them. (2:3-4)

"They are silent now" (2:5). When you simply disengage from the thoughts,
not condemning them or approving them, simply noting them as of no
consequence, as something unwanted at the moment, they really do begin to
fall silent. I discover that I am really in charge of my own mind (who else
would be?). As the thoughts fall away, "in the stillness, hallowed by His
Love, God speaks to us and tells us of our will, as we have chosen to
remember Him" (2:6).

One final note. As we begin to learn this practice of silence, it starts to
spill over into our lives during the day. We discover that we are able, in
the throes of some disturbing situation, to "step back" from the reactive
thoughts of our minds, note the reactions, and simply choose, with His help,
to let them go. The place of silence we have found in our special times of
quiet comes with us into our day. "This quiet center, in which you do
nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every busy
doing on which you are sent" (T-18.VII.8:3).

WHAT IS SIN?

PART 4: W-PII.4.2:4-7

When we have changed the goal of our striving, and set a new purpose for our
body with its senses, it begins to "serve a different aim" (2:4). The aim
now is holiness rather than sin; forgiveness rather than guilt. Our minds
were trying, through the body and the senses, to deceive themselves (2:5;
2:1). Our minds were trying to make their illusions of separation real. Now
our aim is to rediscover the truth. When our mind selects a new goal, the
body follows. The body serves the mind, and not vice versa (see T-31.III.4).
It always does what the mind directs. So when we consciously select a new
goal, the body begins to serve that goal (see T-31.III.6:2-3).

"The senses then will seek instead for witnesses to what is true" (2:7).
Simply put, we will start to see things differently. The Text explains in
some detail how this works (see T-11.VIII.9-14 and T-19.IV(A).10-11). We
begin to look for our brothers' loving thoughts instead of their sins. We
are seeking to learn of their reality (which is the Christ) instead of
trying to discover their guilt. We look past their egos, their "variable
perception" of themselves (T-11.VIII.11:1), and past their offenses. We ask
the Holy Spirit to help us see their reality, and He shows it to us. "When
you want only love, you will see nothing else" (T-12.VII.8:1).

What we see depends on what we <choose>, in our minds, to look for. Choose
love, and the body will become the instrument of a new perception.





From sue at circleofa.org  Thu Sep 11 06:02:35 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:02:35 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 255 - September 12
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAB4Fq/iKCT9KmvHxWb8vESEBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 255 - SEPTEMBER 12

"THIS DAY I CHOOSE TO SPEND IN PERFECT PEACE."

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 comments: Today is the first of three days of peace in Part II (the
other two are 273 and 286). All are attempts to have a day of undisturbed
peace, and all highlight the importance of our ability to have such a day.
So really "give today to finding" (1:6) the peace God wills for you. Use
your repetition of paragraphs 1 and 2 as a device for dedicating the day to
this purpose. Practice frequently, in the faith that this peace really is
there, and that your practice can lay hold of it for you.

COMMENTARY

Peace does not seem to be purely a matter of choice: "It does not seem to me
that I can choose to have but peace today" (1:1). Our egos would have us
believe that peace can be taken from us, or given to us, by things outside
our minds. It is not so.

If I am God's Son, and therefore like Himself, I have the power of decision,
the power to simply <choose> peace (1:2-3). God says it is so; let me have
faith in Him, and let me act upon that faith. Let me give it a try! Let me
choose to spend this day in perfect peace. The more I determine to "give
today to finding what my Father wills for me," which is the peace of Heaven,
and "accepting it as mine" (1:6), the more I will experience that peace. I
will probably also find a lot of things that pop up trying to disturb that
peace. But I can respond to these things simply by saying, "I would choose
peace instead of this," or "This cannot take away the peace my Father has
given me." As I do this, the peace I choose and experience will "bear
witness to the truth of what He says" (1:4).

Remember, your mental state isn't perfect, nor is it expected to be perfect.
You are in training; this is a course in mind training. When I practice
guitar chords, especially new ones, at first placing my fingers in the right
position takes a lot of concentration and effort. I am forced to break the
rhythm of the song, slowing down so I can place my fingers just so. I don't
expect to get it right every time. Getting it wrong and correcting myself is
part of the training. Eventually, with time, my fingers start forming a
habit pattern; they go more and more frequently into the right configuration
to strike the chord without any buzzing or dead notes. The training period
is a time of doing it wrong, doing it deliberately with conscious
concentration, until it becomes a habit I no longer have to think about.
That is what we are doing in these lessons: practicing the habit of peace.

Our aim today is to spend the day with God (2:1). We, His Son, have not
forgotten Him, and our practice is witness to that fact. The peace of God is
in our minds, where He put it. We can find it, we can choose to spend our
day there, in peace, with Him. We <can> do this; God assures us we can. So
let us practice. Let us begin. Let us accept His peace as our own, and give
it to all our Father's Sons, along with ourselves (1:6).

WHAT IS SIN?

PART 5: W-PII.4.3:1-2

Our illusions come from, or issue from, our untrue thoughts. Illusions are
not really "things" at all; they are symbols, standing for imaginary things
(3:1). They are like a mirage, a picture of something that is not really
there at all. Our thoughts of lack, our feelings of unworthiness, our guilt
and fear, the appearance of the world attacking us, even our bodies
themselves--all of them are illusions, mirages, symbols representing
nothing.

Sin is "the home of all illusions" (3:1). The idea of our inner corruption,
our bent nature, houses every illusion. The thought of sin and guilt makes
an environment that fosters and nourishes every illusion. What needs
changing is that thought of the mind. Take away the thought of sin, and our
illusions have no place to live. They simply fall down into dust.

These illusions, which come from untrue thoughts and make "sin" their
dwelling place, "are the 'proof' that what has no reality is real" (3:2).
Our bodies seem to prove to us that sickness and death are real, for
instance. Our senses seem to prove that pain is real. Our eyes and ears see
all kinds of evidence of guilt, of the reality of loss, and of the weakness
of love. The world seems to prove that either God does not exist, or that He
is angry with us. These things that our illusions seem to prove have no
reality at all, and yet they seem real to us. All of this is housed in our
belief in sin, and without that belief, they would simply cease to be.






From suelegal at gmail.com  Fri Sep 12 05:00:34 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:00:34 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 256 - September 13
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAABk7L/Gn4WJIoRYc5Nq9KRYBAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



LESSON 256 - SEPTEMBER 13

"GOD IS THE ONLY GOAL I HAVE TODAY."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II Practice Instructions in a 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

The title of the lesson talks about our goal. The first two sentences speak
of the <means> to the goal:

The way to God is through forgiveness here. There is no other way. (1:1-2)

We are speaking of means and end. Just the other day I read the Text section
on "Consistency of Means and End" (T-20.VII), which reasons how, if we
accept the goal, we must accept the means for getting there.

The means is forgiveness, and the Course continually insists that
forgiveness is not difficult and cannot be difficult, because all it asks is
that we recognize that what has never been has not occurred, and only the
truth is true. How can it be difficult to be what you already are? If we
experience forgiveness as difficult, there can only be one reason: we do not
want the means because we still do not want the goal.

In other words, any difficulty stems not from something inherent in
forgiveness, but from my unwillingness. It points me right back to
recognizing what I am choosing, back to recognizing that I always have
exactly what I want. Forgiveness seems difficult because I want it to seem
difficult, and I want the means to appear difficult so I can project my
unwillingness out onto the means God provided, blaming that means instead of
recognizing myself as the cause of the problem.

"There is no other way" (1:2). If the problem is sin and the whole idea of
sin, the only solution must be forgiveness. "If sin had not been cherished
by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you
are?" (1:3). We are trying to find our way to God and we're already there!
There would have been no need for such foolishness if we had not "cherished"
sin. We (in listening to our ego thoughts) wanted to find a reason for
separation, and sin, guilt, and fear provided the reason. We made it all up,
and we must be the ones to let it go.

If we simply woke up, the dream of sin would be over. But we are too
terrified to wake up, and the dream of sin and guilt has seemingly become
self-sustaining. There seems to be no way out. "Here we can but dream"
(1:7). But--and this is a big "but"--"we can dream we have forgiven him in
whom all sin remains impossible, and it is this we choose to dream today"
(1:8).

So I spend my days, noticing the dream of sin and forgiving it, over and
over, more and more, until there is nothing left to forgive. At that point,
my fear of God will be gone, and I will awake.

As I notice fear or guilt in myself today, or judging thoughts about those
around me, let me look at those thoughts and recognize how insignificant
they are, how meaningless. Let me be undisturbed by it all, and know my
peace is inviolate. Let me understand that none of it matters, and I am
still at rest in God. It is not this I want; I have no goal except to hear
God's Voice.

WHAT IS SIN?

PART 6: W-PII.4.3:3-4

If "sin" is something real, the implications are enormous. And quite
impossible. What does the reality of sin seem to prove? "Sin 'proves' God's
Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die" (3:3). If
the Son created by God has sinned in truth, then God's Son must be evil. Is
that possible? If the Son of God is evil, then what was created eternal must
now be brought to an end; the eternal Son of God must die. "Justice" would
demand it. Is it possible for something timeless to end, for something
eternal to die? Of course not; these things are absurd. Therefore, sin also
must be absurd. It cannot be.

Sin also "proves" that "God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but
corruption to complete Himself, His Will forever overcome by death, love
slain by hate, and peace to be no more" (3:4). The thought that God would
lose what He loves always seemed impossible to me; it made the whole idea of
hell and eternal damnation seem completely inexplicable. I used to think,
"If I go to Heaven, and my father [who did not believe in God] goes to hell,
how could I ever be eternally, blissfully happy in Heaven, knowing my father
is suffering eternally in hell? If I could not be happy with this, how could
I be in Heaven? And if I could not be happy with this, how could God?"

If sin is real, the Son created to be God's own completion is now corrupt;
God has only corruption to complete Himself. His Will has been totally
thwarted. Evil wins. There can nevermore be peace.

Therefore, sin simply cannot be real. Guilt and fear follow sin into the
unreality. If there is no sin, there is no guilt. If there is no guilt,
there is no fear. How else could peace exist? "Sin is insanity" (1:1). It
simply cannot be, if God is God, if His Will is to be done, if His creation
is eternal. This is what forgiveness shows us:

Sin remains impossible, and it is this we choose to dream today. God is our
goal; forgiveness is the means by which our minds return to Him at last.
(W-pII.256.1:8-9)





From suelegal at gmail.com  Sat Sep 13 05:00:57 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:00:57 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 257 - September 14
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAADsT+P8ojmpKoUnShw974WIBAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



Lesson 257 - September 14

"LET ME REMEMBER WHAT MY PURPOSE IS."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II Practice Instructions in a 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: As you begin your day, I suggest spending a moment
going through the day you normally have, trying to see how you are usually
serving contradictory goals. See yourself reaching after the goals of the
world, and then at other times reaching after the goal of God. Try to get in
touch with how divided this makes you feel, how it makes you unsure of who
you are, and how it makes you feel that you will never reach either set of
goals--the earthly or the heavenly--simply because you are giving each set
only half of your energy.

Then spend another moment imagining what your day would be like if you only
pursued the goal of God today, if you unified your thoughts and actions
behind that single goal, and therefore achieved only what God would have you
do today. Ask yourself how that day would feel. And then dedicate today to
being <that> day.

COMMENTARY

The purpose this lesson is alluding to is forgiveness (2:1). Over and over,
the Course tells us that forgiveness is our function, our purpose, our
reason for being here. And it is our <only> function:

<I am the light of the world. That is my only function. That is why I am
here>. (W-pI.61.5:3-5)

Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world. (W-pI.62.Heading)

What if, today, I remembered that forgiveness is my only purpose? What if I
realized that, whatever else happens, if I forgive everything and everyone I
see today, I have fulfilled my function? What if I realized that all the
things I think are important are nothing compared to this purpose? When I am
behind that slow driver while trying to get someplace on time, forgiving is
my purpose, not getting there on time. In any situation of conflict,
forgiveness is my goal, not winning. When the person from whom I am seeking
signs of love fails to respond, forgiveness is my goal, not getting the
response I seek. And so on. What kind of difference would it make if I
really made forgiveness my primary goal, my only goal?

If I forget the goal, I will always end up being conflicted, trying to serve
contradictory goals (1:1-2). The inevitable result of conflicting goals is
"deep distress and great depression" (1:3). Sound familiar? As we begin the
spiritual path we are almost always conflicted, because we have adopted a
new, higher goal without really letting go of the older ones. We're trying
to serve two masters, which reminds me of the time I had a job where I was
taking orders from two bosses! What a time of distress and depression that
was! The only way to peace of mind in our lives is to firmly settle on a
single purpose or goal (2:3), and to continually put that above everything
else. We need to "unify our thoughts and actions meaningfully," by
recognizing that God's Will for us is forgiveness, and seeking to do only
that (1:4; 2:2).

WHAT IS SIN?

PART 7: W-PII.4.4:1-3

The lesson compares our belief in sin, and the projected illusions we have
made to support that belief, to "a madman's dreams" (4:1). The dreams of a
madman can be truly terrifying; likewise, our outpicturing of sin in this
world can also be very frightening. "Sin appears indeed to terrify" (4:1).
Sickness, death, and loss of every kind cannot but result in terror in us.
The illusion is not gentle.

"Yet what sin perceives is but a childish game" (4:2). None of it really has
any lasting consequence. In the light of eternity, our wars and plagues are
no more real and no more frightening than a child's imaginary war between
superhero action figures. There is no question that this is very hard to
accept, particularly when you are in the middle of it all, believing it to
be real. Yet it is what the Course is saying. If the body does not really
live, it does not really die. "The Son of God may play he has become a body,
prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death" (4:3).
But that is not really the case. It is just a game we are playing. None of
it really means what we think it means.

When we go to a movie, we may weep when a character we have identified with
suffers loss or dies. Yet a deeper part of our mind knows we are watching a
story; the actor did not really die. And at some level, the Course is asking
us to respond to what we call "life" in the same way, with a deeper level of
knowledge that knows that any life God created cannot ever die. The
character in the movie may die, we may weep, and yet underneath all that, we
know it is only an imaginary game, and not the final reality.




From suelegal at gmail.com  Sun Sep 14 05:00:10 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2008 05:00:10 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 258 - September 15
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAP3lEPsmSEFGuYVTfRCCmrgBAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



LESSON 258 - SEPTEMBER 15

"LET ME REMEMBER THAT MY GOAL IS GOD."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II Practice Instructions in a 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

Have you noticed we are into a series of "let me remember" days? Starting
with yesterday's lesson, there are four "let me remembers" in a row: "what
my purpose is," "that my goal is God," "that there is no sin," and "God
created me." There was one earlier lesson also (Lesson 124): "Let me
remember I am one with God."

That is one of the things Workbook practice is all about: remembering. How
often during the day does the lesson for the day cross my mind? How often do
I pause to reflect on it for a minute or two? How often does my state of
mind reflect my only purpose, or God as my goal? And how much of the time
does my mind reflect something quite contrary? The purpose of set
times--morning, evening, and hourly--is to retrain my mind to think along
the lines of the Course. There is no question in my mind that we need such
training and such practice.

All that is needful is to train our minds to overlook all little senseless
aims, and to remember that our goal is God. (1:1)

The "little senseless aims," however, loom large in our consciousness, and
do not seem little to us; they preoccupy our minds and keep them from their
true goal. So training is "needful." The memory of God is in us already
(1:2); we don't have to dig for it. "God is in your memory" (T-10.II.2:4).
All that we need to do is "overlook" or give up "our pointless little goals
which offer nothing, and do not exist" (1:2); they are obscuring the memory
of God within us. With them out of the way, the memory of God will come
flooding back into our awareness.

The "toys and trinkets of the world" that we so avidly pursue cause "God's
grace to shine in unawareness" (1:3). God's sunlight is shining, but we do
not see it; we go shopping. Not just in malls for things, but in
relationships for specialness, in the marketplace for power and influence
and wealth, in the bars for sex, and with our TV remote controls for
entertainment. Do I want the memory of God? All that is needful is that I be
willing to train my mind to stop blinding me to it.

"Let me remember." Oh, God, let me remember!

God is our only goal, our only Love. We have no aim but to remember Him.
(1:4-5)

What else could I want that compares with this? Each time today that my
heart is tugged to "shop" for something else, let it be a signal to my mind
to stop, and to remember: "My goal is God."

A poem I learned in my Christian days pops into my mind. Some of those folks
knew what they were talking about:

My goal is God Himself.

Not joy, nor peace, nor even blessing,

But Himself, my God.

At any cost, dear Lord, By any road.

A Course friend sent us some baseball-type caps imprinted with the letters
"MOGIG." They stand for "My only goal is God." I think I'll wear that hat
today as I work; it will be a good reminder.

WHAT IS SIN?

PART 8: W-PII.4.4:4

While we are all deeply involved in the drama of this "childish game" (4:2),
reality continues. It has never changed. "But all the while his Father
shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses
cannot change at all" (4:4). Our "pretenses," the childish game, the playing
at being bodies that suffer evil and guilt and death, has not changed and
cannot change the deep, abiding reality of God's Love; the endless, perfect
safety in which we dwell in Him.

The changelessness of Heaven is in you, so deep within that nothing in this
world but passes by, unnoticed and unseen. The still infinity of endless
peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace, so strong and quiet,
tranquil in the might of its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the sacred
Son of God within. (T-29.V.2:3-4)

In a sense, God's Love guarantees our eternal safety. Because His Love is
"everlasting," so are we. While His Love endures, we endure also.

The Son of Life cannot be killed. He is immortal as His Father. What he is
cannot be changed. He is the only thing in all the universe that must be
one. What <seems> eternal all will have an end. The stars will disappear,
and night and day will be no more. All things that come and go, the tides
and seasons and the lives of men; all things that change with time and bloom
and fade will not return. Where time has set an end is not where the eternal
is. God's Son can never change by what men made of him. He will be as he was
and as he is, for time appointed not his destiny, nor set the hour of his
birth and death. (T-29.VI.2:3-12)




From suelegal at gmail.com  Mon Sep 15 05:00:17 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:00:17 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 259 - September 16
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAABf6/ZNBnuNFvpT4H1o3vhYBAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



LESSON 259 - SEPTEMBER 16

"LET ME REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO SIN."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in a 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

The concept of sin includes the idea that what I have done or thought or
said has in some way irretrievably altered what I am. We think of sin not as
a smudge of dirt on a clean surface, but as some kind of dry rot that has
settled into the fabric of our being.

When Jesus says there is no sin, he is saying that our ideas are wrong.
Nothing we have done has altered what we are in any way. The surface is
uncorrupted and can be simply wiped clean. We are created with an amazing
psychic layer of Scotchgard protectant. Underneath the layers of grime, we
are still the holy Son of God.

If we think of sin as we normally do, the goal of God seems unattainable
(1:1). If we see it as Jesus does, we can understand that the goal is
already attained; it is not something to attain, it is something to
celebrate.

When we see sin in another as dry rot, we feel justified in our attacks
(1:3). When we see it as surface smudges, our love responds with a desire to
wipe the surface of our brother's mind to reveal the beauty hiding in the
dirt.

We are all aware of some self-destructive habit patterns. All of them come
from the sense that we deserve punishment and suffering because we are
guilty (1:4). We are unworthy of health, happiness, and uninterrupted joy.
We think the evil is <in> us rather than <on> us.

When we fully accept the truth of our own innocence, we have opened the way
to complete abundance and health. The universe is set up to support us, good
is continually flowing our way, but we constantly block it off because,
unconsciously, we don't think we deserve it. All this comes from the belief
in sin.

Sin makes us afraid of love (2:2). To be afraid of love is insane, but then,
"sin is insanity" (W-pII.4.1:1). If God is the Source of everything that is,
then all there is must be Love; there can be no opposite, no fear, no sin
(2:3-5). To remember that there is no sin is to accept our own perfect
innocence, and the perfect innocence of all that is. And all the evidence we
perceive that seems to prove otherwise is an illusion made up by our own
minds.

WHAT IS SIN?

PART 9: W-PII.4.5:1-4

How long, we are asked, will we maintain this childish game of sin? That is
all it is, a foolish game. Not an awful, terrible thing; just immature minds
playing with "sharp-edged children's toys" (5:2). I think it is no
coincidence that in the famous biblical chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13,
the Apostle Paul speaks of how, when we are children, we speak as children
and act as children, but when we are grown, we "put away childish things" (1
Cor 13:11). That is what the lesson is asking us to do. It is asking us to
grow up. "Sin" is a sharp-edged childish thing we have been playing with for
eons. It is time for us to lay it aside, and to assume our "mature" role as
extensions of God's Love.

It is time for us to put away these toys. Time to lay aside the whole
concept of sin and guilt, the idea that we can do (and have done) something
that immutably changes our nature. Something that merits everlasting
condemnation and punishment. It is time to look around us and to realize
that nothing, absolutely nothing, falls into this class. Sin, as a class or
category of human behavior, simply does not exist. There are no sins, only
mistakes. Nothing is beyond correction. Nothing bans us from God's Love.
Nothing takes away our eternal inheritance. Nothing can separate us from the
Love of God.

How soon will you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? (5:3-4)

We have left home. We have run away because we believed we were evil and had
done something unforgivable. But nothing is unforgivable. It is only our own
belief in sin and guilt that keeps us here, homeless. Home is still waiting
for us. Like the son in the parable of the prodigal, we sit in our pigsty
lamenting our loss, while the Father watches at the end of the road, asking,
"How soon will you be ready to come home? I'm here; I still love you. I'm
waiting for you." Today, now, in this holy instant, let us be still a
moment, and go home.





From suelegal at gmail.com  Tue Sep 16 05:00:31 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:00:31 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 260 - September 17
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAC5ID81nFTxInXZcc6dbSzUBAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



LESSON 260 - SEPTEMBER 17

"Let me remember God created me."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in a 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: Think of something you wish you hadn't done, or wish
you had done better. Try to get in touch with how doing that thing seemed to
make you into something undesirable. Perhaps it seemed to make you stupid,
or selfish, or inconsiderate, or petty. Then repeat these lines:
In my eyes, that action made me ___________.
Let me remember God created me.
I cannot make me [the attribute you used in first line], because God created
me [choose an attribute that contrasts with the one you assigned yourself].

COMMENTARY

In the Course's reasoning there is an intimate, unbreakable connection
between acknowledging our true Source ("I am as God created me") and knowing
our true Identity. Once we acknowledge God and only God as our Source, all
questions about our identity disappear, because we are whatever God created
us to be. "Now is our Source remembered, and Therein we find our true
Identity at last" (2:1). If our goal is to remember who we truly are, the
only way to that goal involves accepting God as our Author. All our false
self-concepts derive from the idea that, somehow, we made ourselves, or at
least have played a prominent role in shaping ourselves.

In our "insanity," we thought we made ourselves (1:1). Perhaps we grudgingly
acknowledge God as the original creator, and yet we all believe that, since
that time, we have been the primary factor in shaping our own lives and
destiny. We must believe that, if we believe in sin. Would God create sin?
Yet if He did not, and sin exists-who made it? So whether or not we
consciously admit it, we do believe that we made ourselves, if we believe we
are anything other than totally innocent and perfect. In sum, we think that
"God created us; we screwed things up."

And yet, the Course would argue, we have not left our Source. God is all
there is, and everything that is, is in Him. We are still part of Him.
Therefore we cannot be what we think we are. We cannot separate ourselves
from Him as we think we have. Separation not only never happened; it cannot
happen.

If we simply remember God created us, we will simultaneously remember our
Identity (1:4-5). Just as the nature of a sunbeam is defined by the nature
of the sun, so we are defined by our Source. This is what Christ's vision
shows us as we look upon our brothers and ourselves. We are sinless and holy
"because our Source can know no sin" (2:2). We are, therefore, "like each
other, and alike to Him" (2:3).

Let me remember, today, that God created me. My Source defines what I am. I
am not defined by my past, by my upbringing, by my unkind words or deeds.
Nor are my brothers defined by theirs. We are, all of us, defined by God.
And what we are is His perfect Son.

WHAT IS SIN?

Part 10: W-pII.4.5:5-8

There is no sin. Creation is unchanged.	(5:5-6) 

This is what remembering our Source tells us. "Sin" is only a childish game
we have invented, and it has had no effect whatsoever on God's creation. It
is a game played only in our imagination; it has not changed reality one
iota. The "Fall" never happened. There is nothing to atone for, nothing to
pay for. The door to Heaven is wide open in welcome.

All that we need do, then, is to stop imagining this childish game. All that
we need do is to cease imagining that guilt-our own or that of another-has
any value at all, and to let it go. We hold on to guilt and sin only to
maintain our illusion of separateness. Is it worth the price we pay? When we
let go of sin, separateness is gone, and Heaven is restored to us. 

Would you still hold return to Heaven back? How long, O holy Son of God, how
long?	(5:7-8)




From sue at circleofa.org  Tue Sep 16 06:02:27 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:02:27 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 260 - September 17
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAKGUT6njWQhEoKT9fTrg398BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 260 - SEPTEMBER 17

"Let me remember God created me."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in a 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: Think of something you wish you hadn't done, or wish
you had done better. Try to get in touch with how doing that thing seemed to
make you into something undesirable. Perhaps it seemed to make you stupid,
or selfish, or inconsiderate, or petty. Then repeat these lines:
In my eyes, that action made me ___________.
Let me remember God created me.
I cannot make me [the attribute you used in first line], because God created
me [choose an attribute that contrasts with the one you assigned yourself].

COMMENTARY

In the Course's reasoning there is an intimate, unbreakable connection
between acknowledging our true Source ("I am as God created me") and knowing
our true Identity. Once we acknowledge God and only God as our Source, all
questions about our identity disappear, because we are whatever God created
us to be. "Now is our Source remembered, and Therein we find our true
Identity at last" (2:1). If our goal is to remember who we truly are, the
only way to that goal involves accepting God as our Author. All our false
self-concepts derive from the idea that, somehow, we made ourselves, or at
least have played a prominent role in shaping ourselves.

In our "insanity," we thought we made ourselves (1:1). Perhaps we grudgingly
acknowledge God as the original creator, and yet we all believe that, since
that time, we have been the primary factor in shaping our own lives and
destiny. We must believe that, if we believe in sin. Would God create sin?
Yet if He did not, and sin exists-who made it? So whether or not we
consciously admit it, we do believe that we made ourselves, if we believe we
are anything other than totally innocent and perfect. In sum, we think that
"God created us; we screwed things up."

And yet, the Course would argue, we have not left our Source. God is all
there is, and everything that is, is in Him. We are still part of Him.
Therefore we cannot be what we think we are. We cannot separate ourselves
from Him as we think we have. Separation not only never happened; it cannot
happen.

If we simply remember God created us, we will simultaneously remember our
Identity (1:4-5). Just as the nature of a sunbeam is defined by the nature
of the sun, so we are defined by our Source. This is what Christ's vision
shows us as we look upon our brothers and ourselves. We are sinless and holy
"because our Source can know no sin" (2:2). We are, therefore, "like each
other, and alike to Him" (2:3).

Let me remember, today, that God created me. My Source defines what I am. I
am not defined by my past, by my upbringing, by my unkind words or deeds.
Nor are my brothers defined by theirs. We are, all of us, defined by God.
And what we are is His perfect Son.

WHAT IS SIN?

Part 10: W-pII.4.5:5-8

There is no sin. Creation is unchanged.	(5:5-6) 

This is what remembering our Source tells us. "Sin" is only a childish game
we have invented, and it has had no effect whatsoever on God's creation. It
is a game played only in our imagination; it has not changed reality one
iota. The "Fall" never happened. There is nothing to atone for, nothing to
pay for. The door to Heaven is wide open in welcome.

All that we need do, then, is to stop imagining this childish game. All that
we need do is to cease imagining that guilt-our own or that of another-has
any value at all, and to let it go. We hold on to guilt and sin only to
maintain our illusion of separateness. Is it worth the price we pay? When we
let go of sin, separateness is gone, and Heaven is restored to us. 

Would you still hold return to Heaven back? How long, O holy Son of God, how
long?	(5:7-8)




From sue at circleofa.org  Wed Sep 17 05:47:19 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:47:19 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 261 - September 18
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAABbp0gz7KRJNn8uarudWIdABAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



Lesson 261 - September 18

"GOD IS MY REFUGE AND SECURITY."

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.

Practice suggestion: Search your mind for things in this world that you
believe make you safe. Then, with each one, affirm that God is your safety.
You may want to use the following form:

<I think that my bank account [or job, or spouse, or family, etc.] makes me
safe.

I see myself living within the walls of its protection.

But I live within God, not in this world.

In Him I find refuge; in Him I am safe>.

COMMENTARY

If you have read over the preceding page in the Workbook on "What Is the
Body?" you will have noticed that the last paragraph of that section talks
about how we "will identify with what [we] think will make [us] safe"
(W-pII.5.5:1). The thought is echoed in the start of this lesson: "I will
identify with what I think is refuge and security" (1:1). If we have a home
which makes us feel safe and secure, for example, we will identify with that
home. The thing which makes us feel safe becomes part of our identity. If
the connection is strong enough, it will actually <become> our identity in
our minds. We begin to see our "citadel" (1:2) of safety as an essential
part of ourselves. "I will behold myself where I perceive my strength"
(1:2).

This is what we have done with our own bodies. We mistakenly see our bodies
as that which makes us safe ("safe from love," actually--see WpII.5.1:1-3).
The body becomes the thing that protects us from God, or from the conflict
between love and fear within our minds: you "interpret the body as yourself
in an attempt to escape from the conflict you have induced" (T3.IV.6:3).
Seeing the body as what makes me safe, I identify with it and perceive my
"self" as existing within it. I also perceive my individual ego identity in
the same way. It protects me from "losing myself" in the unity love
encourages. I therefore encourage my sense of "danger" and even engage in
"murderous attack" (1:3) because these things seem to protect my
individuality from the inroads of other "selves." The same dynamic is
reflected in the world in people and even nations who violently attack
others, claiming they are only seeking to preserve their own peace. The
stance is obviously self-contradictory. How can we "find security in danger"
or "peace in murderous attack" (1:3)?

Our true security is in God. "I live in God" (1:4), and not in my body nor
my ego self.

In Him I find my refuge and my strength. In Him is my Identity. (1:5-6)

To know this as true, we have to release our hold on the thoughts that
identify us with our bodies and our egos, and we have to begin to give up
attack as a way of life and self-preservation. Attack does not preserve the
Self; it preserves the ego, the false self. It preserves fear, chaos, and
conflict. The only way, therefore, to truly find peace and to find "Who I
really am" is to put an end to our protection of the false self, and to
remember that our true everlasting peace is found only in God (1:7- 8).

May I, Father, come home to You today. May I, in entering into Your Presence
in this holy instant, feel that sense of peace and security that is mine in
truth, in my Identity in You. May I be able to sigh, "Ah! Home!" and feel
the release of tension it brings to be here, in You. May I find my Self, and
let go of all false identification with lesser things. Be my refuge, today,
Father. "The eternal God [is thy] refuge, and underneath [are] the
everlasting arms" (Dt 33:27). May I allow myself to fall back into Your arms
today. When the day presses on me, be my refuge, my fortress and my high
tower. Let me escape to You in the holy instant, and know the safety of Your
Love.

What Is the Body?

PART 1: W-PII.5.1:1-3

What is the body? Who, outside the Course, would have answered as does this
paragraph? "The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to
separate parts of his Self from other parts" (1:1). The body is a fence.
What a strange concept that is! (It is an idea expanded on in the Text
section entitled "The Little Garden" [T-18.VIII].) Its purpose (the reason
the ego made it) is to keep something out; to separate parts of my Self from
other parts. The body is a tool for division and separation; that is why we
made it. It is a device intended to protect us from our wholeness. My body
separates and distinguishes me from all the other "selves" walking this
world in other bodies.

We believe we live "within this fence" (1:2), i.e., in the body. Is there
anyone who can deny that this is how they approach life, the fundamental
presupposition behind nearly all their actions? We think we live in the
body, and we think that when the body decays and crumbles, we die (1:2).
Much fear surrounds the death of the body. When our quadriplegic friend,
Allan Greene, was still living next door, with only one leg and withered
arms, and fingers black and shriveled, dead on his hand, most people found
it profoundly disturbing to meet him (although somehow, in his presence,
many of us quickly got over that discomfort because of his awareness of not
being that body). Why do we generally feel such discomfort around
disfigured, maimed, or dying people? One reason is that it triggers our own
buried fears of the decay of our own bodies, and behind that, the fear of
death itself.

The Course is leading us to a new awareness of a Self that does <not> live
in a body, a Self that does <not> die as the body decays and crumbles. It is
leading us to disengage ourselves from our identification with this bodily,
limited self, and to strengthen our sense of identity with the noncorporeal
Self.

Why have our egos made the body as a fence? What is the fence keeping out?
Strangely, it is keeping out <love>. "For within this fence he thinks that
he is safe from love" (1:3). Why would we want to keep love out? Why would
we ever believe we needed something to keep us "safe" from love? Love lets
in all the parts of our Self we are trying to keep out. Love destroys our
illusion of separateness. Love understands that we are not this limited
thing we believe we are, and that our brothers are parts of us; it
constantly extends, giving and receiving, like a magnetic force drawing all
the fragmented parts of the Self together again.

Have you ever experienced, in a moment of intense love for another person, a
surge of fear? Have you ever felt like you were about to lose yourself if
you gave in to this love? That feeling gives you some hint of the abject
fear the ego has of love. The ego wants you looking for love (because you
know you need and want it) in order to keep you satisfied (and trapped), but
it never, ever wants you to find it. Love represents the loss of the ego
identity. To the ego, it <is> death. And so the body is manufactured to keep
love out, as a means of preserving our sense of separateness.




From sue at circleofa.org  Thu Sep 18 05:59:50 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:59:50 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 262 - September 19
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAJ/8jGOML6hGgsm8lJKDJ74BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



Lesson 262 - September 19

"LET ME PERCEIVE NO DIFFERENCES TODAY."

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.

Practice suggestion: Throughout the day, when you have a spare moment, pick
someone and silently say to him or her:

<You are not that one form. You are the Mind behind all forms.

Your name is not [name], for you are not separate. Your name is "Father,"
for you are part of Him.

You are not a stranger to your Father. You are His beloved Son.

You are not a stranger to me. You are my ancient friend>.

COMMENTARY

In order to move toward perceiving no differences, I must begin to let go of
identification with the body, both in identifying myself with a body, and in
identifying my brothers and sisters as bodies. The body, says the reading
for the week, is a fence (W-pII.5.1:1). It establishes difference; it fairly
screams, "I am different." Why is it that every body has different
fingerprints, different retinal prints, different DNA patterns? How can it
be that in all the billions of bodies, no fingerprint is ever duplicated?
Our bodies are saying, "I am different. I am unique. I am completely unlike
all of you."

Love sings softly, "We are the same. We are one. We share one life, and that
with God." It is the one Son that we would look upon today (1:1-2). The
"thousand forms" (1:4) are different; the life we share is one. We need not
denigrate the body to do this. The body can become a means to heal the
separation of our minds. We use the body to express our unity. We touch, we
embrace, we care for one another, we assist one another. We <use> the
illusion to transcend the illusion.

In each body that comes before us, we see the one Son. "Let me not see him
as a stranger to his Father, nor as stranger to myself" (1:7). Each one I
see today is part of me, and I of him, and together we are part of God our
Source (1:8). Seeing this is what seeing no differences means. Of course, I
will still see male and female, tall and short, fat and thin, poor and rich,
black and white and brown and yellow and red. But I choose to look beyond
these differences today, and to see the sameness, the one Son in whom we are
the same, not different.

Separation means differences, and differences breed judgment and attack. The
vision of our sameness and our unity brings peace, "and nowhere else can
peace be sought and found" (2:3). We choose not to let our sight stop at the
differences, but to go beyond them to the oneness. We look and we say, "This
is my brother (sister) whom I love, part of me, loved by God and part of God
with me. Together we are the holy Son of God."

What Is the Body?

PART 2: W-PII.5.1:4-5

When we see our safety in the body, we identify with it. We see ourselves as
bodies (1:4). It is this that promotes and supports the ego's ideal of
separation, judgment, and attack. To the ego, this is the purpose of bodies,
although it tells us that the purpose is our own safety. It seems to me that
it is beneficial, then, to recognize the frailty of our bodies, their
temporary and ephemeral nature. The sickness and death of the body, then,
instead of being a fearful thing, can become a gentle reminder that this is
not what we are. Why would we want to identify with such a vulnerable thing?
Recognizing the body's impermanence and the brevity of its existence can
impel us to seek a more permanent identity elsewhere. Becoming aware of the
lunacy of seeking our safety in the body, we can understand that our strong
attachment to the body must come from some hitherto unsuspected motive: the
ego's desire for separateness.

How else could he be certain he remains within the body, keeping love
outside? (1:5)

If we did not have this strong attachment to and identification with the
body, if we realized that what we are transcends the body and dwarfs its
significance, we could not keep love away from us. This is the ego's purpose
in promoting our bodily identity: to keep love out. This is where our
seemingly instinctive need to regard ourselves as bodies comes from. It is a
deception and trap of our egos, and when we see this clearly, we realize
that it is not something we want at all.

The seemingly good reasons for identifying with our bodies, in the Course's
eyes, simply do not hold water. Bodies are unsafe vehicles; there is no
security in them. Behind the seemingly benign reasons our egos set forth
there is a much darker hidden motivation: the ego's blind belief in the
value of separateness and difference. The Course is asking us to acknowledge
this dark motive within ourselves, and to disavow it, turning instead to the
eternal safety of Love Itself, which is our true nature as God's creation. 





From sue at circleofa.org  Fri Sep 19 05:41:16 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:41:16 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 263 - September 20
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAACpJBK4SpnhNpw6K7r4iqeABAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 263 - SEPTEMBER 20

"My holy vision sees all things as pure."

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.

Practice suggestion: Look randomly about you for a minute or two. In
relation to whatever your eyes alight on, say, <"My holy vision sees this
_________ as pure, that I may pass it by in innocence.">

Then close your eyes and think of various people you know. In relation to
each one, say, <"My holy vision sees [name] as pure, that we may walk
together to our Father's house.">

COMMENTARY

This lesson is about seeing all things as God created them: without sin,
innocent, and pure. His Mind created all that is, His Spirit entered into
it, and His Love gave life to it (1:1). To see things in this way, at first,
has to be a conscious choice, because we have trained our minds to see
otherwise. We have learned to judge. We will categorize, evaluate on a scale
of one to ten, and attempt to determine whether this is something or someone
we want to draw closer to us or to push away. We've trained our minds to do
so since birth, and probably in many previous lifetimes. Thus, there has to
be a conscious choice to say, "No. I choose to see this as pure." We
downgrade our reflexive evaluations and choose instead to accept the Holy
Spirit's judgment.

Eventually--a long eventually--our minds will become retrained. The choice
to see purity will become more and more automatic. The judgmental thoughts
will probably always be there, slowly receding into the background, until we
leave this world completely, but the choice to see purity will become less
and less a conscious choice, and more and more a habit of thought. Frequent
and persistent repetition will speed the process.

WHAT IS THE BODY?

PART 3: W-PII.5.2:1-4

The body, of course, is transient. It will not last (2:1). The biblical
psalmist compared man's life to grass, as brief as a flower in the field,
and quickly disappearing (Ps 103:15).

Our transient nature is near to the surface of every mind, as I was reminded
last night in a restaurant, when someone came in and greeted the host with,
"How's life?"

"Too short," he replied.

You might think that the shortness of physical life would instantly alert us
to the fallacy of the ego's attempt to have us find safety in the body, but
the ego quickly twists the very shortness into a proof of its case. The ego
wants to prove separation. And what is more separating than physical death?
So the short life of the body "proves" that the fence works; we really are
separate from one another and from God (2:3). We made the body to manifest
separation, and lo! it does. One body can attack another and kill it. If we
were really one, so the ego's logic goes, this would be impossible (2:4).
The ego is a master of sophistry.

There is a masterful counter-argument in Chapter 13 of the Text. There, it
says:

For you believe that attack is your reality, and that your destruction is
the final proof that you were right.

Under the circumstances, would it not be more desirable to have been wrong,
even apart from the fact that you were wrong? While it could perhaps be
argued that death suggests there <was> life, no one would claim that it
proves there <is> life. Even the past life that death might indicate, could
only have been futile if it must come to this, and needs this to prove that
it was at all. (T-13.IV.2:5-3:3)

If you have to die in order to prove you were right (separation does exist),
wouldn't you rather be wrong--and live? "Even though you know not Heaven,
might it not be more desirable than death?" (T-13.IV.3:6). Much of our fear
of letting go of our identification with the body lies right here; we're
afraid of being proven wrong. If we are wrong in this one thing, so much
else of our lives has been wasted effort. We've been pouring our very souls
into something that, in a very short time, will be only dust. The Course is
asking us to realize the futility of all this, and to look around us and
ask, "Is there perhaps something else more deserving of all this effort?"
And there is.




From suelegal at gmail.com  Fri Sep 19 05:43:59 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:43:59 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] [RESEND] The Practice Instructions to Part II
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAD9KSPgfA7hBg5sicrreFZ8BAAAAAA==@gmail.com>




The Practice instructions to Part II

PURPOSE: The introduction to Part II talks as if, in the remaining part of
this year, we are trying to reach the end of our spiritual journey: "This
year has brought us to eternity" (10:8). However, the Manual, in Section 16
("How Should the Teacher of God Spend His Day?") implies a more modest goal:
to reach a place where we practice because of our own motivation and
inspiration, rather than because a book is telling us to. This would
transform our practicing from a special assignment into a way of life. Part
II of the Workbook, with its absence of daily practice instructions, is an
important step in this direction. If here, in the relatively formless
landscape of Part II, your practice can blossom, rather than wither, you are
close to graduating from the Workbook.

I think we need to combine these two goals: We should aim for eternity,
realizing that by aiming high we will carry ourselves farther than if we
didn't, even though we may only get as far as weaning ourselves from the
Workbook's support. In other words, we should aim to graduate from time and
space, <so that> we can reach the more realistic goal of graduating from the
Workbook.

Reading the lesson: The lessons in Part II take a very different form than
in Part I. After the day's idea, we find just two paragraphs, both worded in
the first person, which expand and comment on the idea. This makes the Part
II lessons look much like what we see in most of the reviews, where the idea
for the day is followed by a series of "related comments" (W-pI.rI.In.2:3;
3:3) which are worded in the first person and expand on the idea. In the
reviews, these related comments become part of the exercises. We read them
over several times, we think about them, we repeat them to ourselves, we
savor each word. We make them our own, which is why they are worded <as if>
they are our own. We so fully engage them that reading them becomes more
like a practice than a simple act of reading.

It makes sense that we should use the comments in the Part II lessons in the
same way that we used the comments in the reviews, simply because the two
are so similar. And the introduction hints at this. For it speaks of our
reading of those paragraphs as an "exercise" (2:1) that is meant to induct
us (1:4) into "the periods of wordless, deep experience which should come
afterwards" (11:2). Let's look at how we can turn the reading of those two
paragraphs into a genuine exercise.

First, the< commentary paragraphs> (the nonitalicized paragraphs). I
recommend that you read these over slowly, perhaps several times, and
imagine that these really are your own thoughts (which is how they are
worded). To facilitate this, you may want to emphasize words like "I," "me,"
"my," and "mine."

Second, the< prayers>. These read as if you yourself are praying them to
God, and I recommend doing just that. Fix one sentence at a time in your
mind and then close your eyes and say that sentence to God. Try to really
mean it and expect Him to hear you. These appear to be designed to carry you
into the meditative state, and many of them virtually say that. Lesson 307
says of its prayer, "And with this prayer we enter silently into a state
where conflict cannot come" (W-pII.307.2:1). To enhance this effect, you may
want to pray the prayer several times.

Morning/evening quiet time: As long as you need for the effect you want.

The longer practice periods are meant to consist of Open Mind Meditation.
Begin by repeating the idea for the day, but in a special way: as an
invitation to God to come to you. "We say the words of invitation that His
Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us" (4:6). After
repeating these words, go into a time of expectant, wordless waiting (the
word "wait" here occurs six times). To wait normally means to stay
physically still in anticipation of some event. Here it means to stay
<mentally> still in anticipation of a wondrous event: the dawning of God on
your mind. Wait as if holding your breath for this event. Wait with an
attitude that "the memory of God is shimmering across the wide horizons of
our minds" (9:5). Your waiting, then, though motionless, should be very much
alive. It should be filled with expectancy: "We...expect our Father to
reveal Himself, as He has promised" (3:3). The basis for your expectancy, in
other words, is your trust that God will keep His promises. He promised to
come to you when you asked. You are asking; He will come. Hold this state
without the aid of repeating words. However, whenever your mind wanders, you
should use words--repeat the idea to draw yourself back to this nonverbal
waiting. "We will use that thought...to calm our minds at need" (3:1).

If you find Open Mind Meditation either too challenging or too unrewarding,
I would recommend using either of the other two methods the Workbook has
taught: Down-and-Inward Meditation or Name of God Meditation. In fact,
Lesson 222 clearly instructs you to use Name of God Meditation: <"Father, we
have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds, as we come
quietly into Your Presence now"> (W-pII.222.2:1).

Hourly remembrance: One or two minutes as the hour strikes (reduce if
circumstances do not permit).

Do a miniature version of the morning practice. Repeat the idea as an
invitation to God, and then wait in wordless silence for Him to come to you.

Frequent reminder: As often as possible within each hour.

"Repeat [the idea], and allow your mind to rest a little time in silence and
in peace" (W-pI.rIII.In.10:5).

Response to temptation: When you are tempted to let upset cause you to
forget your goal.

Repeat the idea as a way of calling on God to dispel your upset (see 2:9 and
10:2).

Reading the "What Is" section: Before one of the day's practice periods (not
necessarily the morning one), read the relevant "What Is" section. Don't
just read it casually. Read it slowly and think about it "a little while"
(11:4).

* * *

LET US PRAY

What are we supposed to do with the prayers in Part II of the Workbook for
<A Course in Miracles>? There are 140 of them, one for each lesson. This has
puzzled many a Course student who, upon reaching Part II, finds himself
confronted each day with an italicized prayer directed at God. Is this
prayer offered by the author of the Course on our behalf? Do we simply read
it? Do we actually pray it? If so, why?

Actually, I am only <assuming> that this issue has puzzled Course students.
I have never really heard much discussion about these prayers. They sit
there on the page, staring at us every day for five straight months, but we
don't seem to talk much about them. The only perspective I recall hearing is
that they must be metaphorical because God can't hear our prayers.

Having done the Workbook several times, I too didn't know what to do with
these prayers. Yet, to be honest, I hadn't really confronted the question. I
would just dutifully open my book and read the prayer attached to that day's
lesson. The prayers generally struck me as being a kind of Course word
salad: a series of typical Course words--Christ, peace, joy, Heaven,
etc.--tossed together as one would toss a salad.

Then one day a few years ago, all that changed for me. I was on a short
retreat and, for some reason, the first thing I did was sit down and try to
discover what the Course wants us to do with its prayers. Having spent many
years studying the Workbook's practice instructions, I had learned that
virtually all our questions about practice are answered right in the
Workbook, if we pay careful attention. Now, for the first time, it occurred
to me that this ought to be true for those prayers; we should expect there
to be instructions for what to do with them.

The logical place for those instructions was the introduction to Part II,
since that is where we find the practice instructions for the entirety of
Part II, where the prayers are found. Within minutes I found two sentences
that ended my search and changed my relationship with the Course and with
God. Here they are:

We say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal
Himself, as He has promised. (WpII.In.3:3)

We say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for
Him to come to us. (WpII.In.4:6)

>From these sentences and the paragraphs around them I obtained the following
picture:

The Course has given us words (from the Holy Spirit) which we are to say to
God as words of invitation and welcome. Once we invite Him with these words,
we sit in a state of silent expectancy, waiting for Him to come and reveal
Himself to us in direct wordless experience.

What are these "words"? In this context, they are definitely the thought for
the day, the lesson title. But are they confined to that? Don't these
"simple words of welcome" also sound like they could be the prayers? After
all, like these words, the prayers are words given us by the Course which
are written as if we are saying them to God.

So I turned the page and looked at the first prayers in Part II. They
resoundingly confirmed what I was thinking. This is how the first prayer
begins:

<Father, I come to You today to seek the peace that You alone can give. I
come in silence>. (W-pII.221.1:1-2)

Just as the introduction described, in this prayer we state our intention to
have an encounter with God in the silence of our minds. The comments that
follow this prayer continue along the same lines: "Now [that we have said
this prayer] do we wait in quiet....We wait with one intent...[for God] to
reveal Himself unto His Son" (W-pII.221.2:1, 6). Here is exactly what the
introduction said: Once we say these words of welcome, we wait in silence
for God to reveal Himself to us.

The next prayer was very similar. In it we state our intention to silently
enter into an experience of God's Presence:

<Father, we have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds,
as we come quietly into Your Presence now, and ask to rest with You in peace
a while>. (W-pII.222.2:1)

This was a very intellectual process of detective work, but its results were
extremely practical: At last I felt I knew what to do with those prayers! I
am to say them directly to God as preparation for a direct wordless
encounter with Him.

So I immediately tried this out. I spent the next hour or so going through
the first twenty prayers in Part II, praying them as I had just discovered I
should. I will never forget that time. It was a pivotal moment in my journey
with the Course. Until that moment, I had no idea how much richness was in
those prayers. What seemed like word salad when read as information became a
wealth of emotional experience when repeated as prayer, when spoken to God.

I was astonished by the sense of loving intimacy with God that shone through
these prayers. I had never realized that <this> was how the Course wanted me
to think about God. God came across not as a remote metaphysical
abstraction, an impersonal essence that is completely unaware of us.
Instead, He came across as near and dear, as the most attentive, loving
Father one could possibly imagine, always there, always listening, always
answering, wanting only to lavish all of His Love upon us. "He covers me
with kindness and with care" (W-pII.222.1:4), one of the lessons said. And
that is exactly how I felt, blanketed in His kindness and care.

Since that day, these prayers have become a staple in my daily life. There
are few things I enjoy doing more than sitting down and spending time with
them. They have literally transformed my relationship with God. My sense of
God before was somewhat remote and abstract. Yet increasingly these prayers
have implanted in me <their> sense of God, so that my feeling for Him has
become a deep well of sustenance and comfort that I draw from daily.

As time went on, I fell into the habit of using these prayers before my
meditation time, because I found them to be the ideal way to prepare my mind
for seeking God in meditation. They gathered the scattered and chaotic
threads of my thought into a single desire to be with God. After I had been
using them in this way for some time, I remembered something: <This is
exactly what they are for>. This is what the instructions in the Workbook
say is their purpose. We are to use the words of these prayers to prepare
our minds for a direct, wordless encounter with God. I can attest to the
fact that they serve their intended purpose very well indeed.

I therefore encourage every student of the Course to avail him- or herself
of the great benefit of these prayers. Try them out and see if you are not
drawn to return to them. Here are some tips for getting the most out of
them:

1. <Focus on one line at a time>. Dwell on each line and let it sink in
before going on to the next.

2. <Say it directly to God>. When the prayer says "Father," have a sense of
speaking directly to God, and of Him in some sense hearing you.

3. <Make it from you>. When the prayer says "I" or "me," have a sense of you
being the one saying the prayer.

4. <Mean it>, as much as you can. Try to make it the prayer of your own
heart.

5. <Make it specific>. For instance, when the prayer we will use below says
"a something I have called by many names," list some of the names you have
given what you seek.

6. <Feel free to elaborate> on the prayer as it evokes additional thoughts
and feelings in you.

To try out this method of using these prayers, I would like to utilize the
following prayer from Lesson 231, "Father, I will but to remember You." My
suggestion is for you to repeat each line slowly, with concentration and
sincerity. Try to see the fullness of meaning contained in each line. Try
also to go through the prayer twice or more.

1. What can I seek for, Father, but Your Love?

2. Perhaps I think I seek for something else; a something I have called by
many names.

3. Yet is Your Love the only thing I seek, or ever sought.

4. For there is nothing else that I could ever really want to find.

5. Let me remember You.

6. What else could I desire but the truth about myself?

What was your experience in repeating these lines? Was it an experience you
want more of? I sincerely hope that the prayers in the Workbook will become
the blessing in your life that they continue to be in mine.





From suelegal at gmail.com  Sat Sep 20 07:28:39 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2008 07:28:39 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 264 - September 21
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAADYGrPl2ZsJPoH4vXJ/ty3cBAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



 LESSON 264 - SEPTEMBER 21

"I AM SURROUNDED BY THE LOVE OF GOD."

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.

Practice suggestion: This is one of my favorite prayers. I recommend praying
it over and over. Give each line your full awareness. Make it a personal
communication from you to God. To aid this process, you might want to insert
the specific comments I've indicated in brackets below:

<Father, You stand before me [in that ______]>

<and behind [in that ______],

beside me [in that ______ on my right and that ______ on my left],

in the place I see myself [on this chair, couch, floor, street, etc.],

and everywhere I go [such as ______, where I am going later].

You are in all the things I look upon [like this ______ and that ______,
which I am seeing right now],

the sounds I hear [like this ______ and this ______, which I am hearing
right now],

and every hand that reaches for my own [such as the hand of ______, who
journeys with me].

In You time disappears [because every moment, being filled with You, is the
same],

and place becomes a meaningless belief [because every place, being filled
with You, is the same].

For what surrounds Your Son, [insert your name],

and keeps him safe is Love Itself [not time, not place].

There is no Source but This, and nothing is [including ______, that
difficult person in my life]

that does not share Its Holiness;

that stands beyond Your one creation,

or without the Love which holds all things within Itself.

Father, Your Son is like Yourself [and Your Son is all of us].

We come to You in Your Own Name today [we are not trespassers; we come at
your invitation],

to be at peace within Your everlasting Love>.

COMMENTARY

The bulk of today's lesson is a beautiful prayer, and my suggestion to us
all is that we take the time not only to read it, but to read it aloud, with
all the expression of which we are capable. Jesus says:

My brothers, join with me in this today. This is salvation's prayer. (2:1-2)

Will you do that? Perhaps we might pause at noon, each in our time zone, and
as we do, realize that others are joining us in that very moment to pray
this same prayer, together. And Jesus joins with us all, every time we
repeat it. "Let all the world be blessed with peace through us"
(W-pII.360.Heading).

(If you can't pause at noon, pause on another hour. Someone, somewhere, will
be joining with you.)

Imagine the effect on yourself if, at least once an hour, and more often if
possible, you simply pause for a moment and silently repeat to yourself,
with conviction, "I am surrounded by the Love of God."

"Love is your safety," says the "What Is the Body?" section (W-pII.5.5:4).
The purpose of these ten lessons is to focus our attention on love, which is
"invisible," rather than on the body, which is visible. A passage in the
Text I happen to be reading today goes right along:

When you made visible what is not true, what <is> true became invisible to
you....It is invisible to you because you are looking at something else.
(T-12.VIII.3:1, 3)

What is not seen is not therefore gone. Love is still in my mind because God
placed it there. Love is still in everything, all around me, and I will see
it if I will but stop looking at something else. Jesus says that if we look
at love enough, what is not there will become invisible to us. That process
is the shift the Course is talking about. As we learn to stop wanting to see
something other than love, we will stop seeing anything but love. That
outcome is inevitable because love is all there is.

We want to see separation, we want to see bodies, because we think somehow
that keeps us safe. It preserves our individuality. Our real safety,
however, lies in love. Our real safety lies in realizing that we are part of
that ocean of love, never ending. Body, ego, and individual consciousness
are not what need to be preserved and adhered to. Rather, we need to adhere
to Universal Consciousness and to playing our part as a synapse in that
Universal Mind, with no purpose that ends in this little cell of self, but
only a purpose that serves the whole.

The way to experience love is to give it. "For if love is sharing, how can
you find it except through itself?" (T-12.VIII.1:5). Let me today open my
heart to love the world. Let me know that this is my function. As I open to
let love out, love will flood in. It always flows both ways. And what I am
loving is myself, not a separate thing or things. I am not simply a cell; I
only exist in relationship to the universe. The whole is in every part.
Everything is related to everything else, and only the whole has meaning. I
am surrounded by the Love of God.

WHAT IS THE BODY?

PART 4: W-PII.5.2:4-9

Our identification with the body seems to protect us from love. The insanity
of the ego believes that death "proves" that we are separate. Yet in reality
there is only our oneness. If we are one, the lesson asks:

Who could attack and who could be attacked? Who could be victor? Who could
be his prey? (2:4-6)

We believe attack is real, that there are really victims and really
murderers. If our oneness remains untouched (2:4), this simply cannot be.
And therefore all such appearances must be illusory, or else the oneness
<has> been destroyed. The horrors of this world are the ego's attempts to
demonstrate the destruction of oneness. Death is the ego's demonstration
that "God's eternal Son can be destroyed" (2:9). As students of the Holy
Spirit, we deny this.

We do not deny that, within the illusion, victims and murderers exist. We do
not pretend that children have not been blown up with bombs, that genocide
is not practiced, that atrocities do not occur, that wars are not going on,
that lives and families and emotional stability are not being shredded all
over the world. All this is true <within the illusion>. What we deny is the
entirety of the illusion. We deny that this picture represents the truth. We
deny that anything real is threatened. We are aware that what we see is only
a dream. We see the dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and
die, but we are not deceived by what we see (see M-12.6:6-8). We bear
witness to reality, invisible to the body's eyes, but seen by the vision of
Christ.

The truth is: Oneness is. The world, the body, and death, all deny this
truth. Our task as miracle workers is to "<deny the denial of truth>"
(T-12.II.1:5). We deny separation, the denial of oneness. We stand, with
hands outstretched to help, and by our words, our actions, our thoughts, and
above all, by our love, we demonstrate the truth of eternal oneness.

* * *

SEEING THE MEANING IN THE IDEA FOR THE DAY

Much of doing the Workbook is repeating the idea for the day, the sentence
at the top of every lesson. Therefore, if this idea falls flat in our mind,
chances are that we will not get much out of that day's practice. We might
as well be repeating some phrase in Latin. At least that is how it feels
sometimes. The remedy to this is understanding the meaning contained in that
brief sentence. This meaning is what makes the practice come alive. The more
meaning we see in those words, the more powerful will be the practice of
them.

This meaning is supplied in large measure by Text study, but also by careful
reading of the lesson. After all, most of the lesson's words are teaching
about what that idea for the day means. Therefore, we should ideally read
each line of the lesson with an eye for what it says about the meaning of
the day's idea. I prefer a kind of mental posture in which I have one eye on
the idea for the day while the other eye is reading the lesson's teaching. I
will read a sentence or paragraph in the lesson and then go back and ask how
this relates to the day's idea. This will often give that idea a different
meaning than I would have otherwise assumed, as well as a deeper and more
multifaceted meaning. In short, it will make the practice of it more
powerful and effective.

Let's see this at work in the case of Lesson 264 and its accompanying
prayer, which provides the teaching for that lesson.

LESSON 264

I AM SURROUNDED BY THE LOVE OF GOD.

When we first read this idea we would probably assume that it means there is
a presence of God that surrounds us, somewhat like an aura, and follows us
wherever we go. This in itself is a comforting thought, but let's see what
meaning the lesson's teaching puts in this idea.

<1. Father, You stand before me and behind, beside me, in the place I see
myself, and everywhere I go>.

This first sentence does not say anything too different from what we would
assume about the day's idea. It does, however, make that idea more concrete
by specifically mentioning "before," "behind" and "beside." It also makes
the idea more absolute. God is not only around me, He is everywhere I go,
and even in the place I see myself. This gives us a hint of what is to come.

<2. You are in all the things I look upon, the sounds I hear, and every hand
that reaches for my own>.

This sentence expands and deepens the idea considerably. God is not merely a
kind of invisible presence that hovers around me in, say, a four-foot
radius. He is in everything I look upon. He is not one invisible item among
a great many more visible things. He is all-pervasive. What's more, He is
even in the <sounds> I hear. Somehow it is much easier to imagine Him being
in physical objects than in sounds. Sounds are not things. They are just
vibrations in the air, just motion. This means that God is not only in
things, but also in processes, in movements. He, of course, is inside those
who walk with me. Yet He is also in their hands that reach for mine, and in
the movement of the hands as they reach, and in the sound of their
footsteps. I am literally surrounded by God, for He dwells in every sight,
sound, person, object, and movement--in everything. We have now come a long
way from God as aura.

<3. In You time disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief>.

This sentence seems to take off in a new direction, yet it is just the
logical outcome of the previous sentences. If God is in everything, then
every place contains the same thing: God. And if every place contains the
same thing, if all places are the same, then there really is no such thing
as place. The very concept of place implies that one place is different from
another, distant from another. The same with time. If God is in every
moment, then apparently different moments are really the same, which means
that there aren't different moments. Without different moments there can't
be time. Without different places there can't be space. Therefore, "time
disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief."

This thought is somewhat different than what I have encountered in some
spiritual teachings. I have heard many times that God is in everything, but
the impression I usually got was that those things were therefore real. By
the act of God dwelling in a rock, for instance, He is sanctioning the
rock's reality. That rock must be real, or God would not bother to be inside
of it. In fact, in these thought systems, God Himself gave birth to the rock
and dwells inside the house He created.

The Course is doing something very different with the idea. It is implying
that God is the only thing real in that rock. The form of the rock, its
physical substance, is not real at all. The form is not a manifestation of
God. It is just an illusory picture of the crazy thought that God is absent.
Thus, the rock is not really there at all. Only God is.

<4. For what surrounds Your Son and keeps him safe is Love Itself>.

This sentence takes things even further. We seem to be surrounded by time
and space. Enveloping us is space; behind us is the past; ahead of us, the
future. That is what it means to be in this world--being surrounded by time
and space. Yet the lesson has told us that what is behind and before us is
God, not past and future, not physical space. If that is really true, then
<we are not in this world at all>. We are really in God's Love, in Heaven.
If we could only see, if the scales could fall off our eyes, we would
realize that right now we are standing not in this world but in Heaven,
enveloped by His Love. We have now come very far indeed from God's Love as
four-foot aura.

<5. There is no Source but This, and nothing is that does not share Its
holiness; that stands beyond Your one creation, or without the Love Which
holds all things within Itself>.

The scope of God's Love continues to expand. Now we are not only surrounded
by God's Love, we <came> from that Love. It is our Source; what gave birth
to our being. Further, this total relationship with God's Love is now
extended to cover everyone and everything. Not just us but <everything>
comes from that Love and is made of It, sharing Its holiness. And <nothing>
has been left outside Its eternal embrace. Everything is held within It, not
within time and space. How can there be a world of time and space when there
is only Love creating more of Itself?

<6. Father, Your Son is like Yourself>.

Sentence 5 was a longer, more philosophical statement about the relationship
of the Source to everything else. Now we take those ideas and, in sentence
6, compress them into a brief, direct, and intimate statement from a Son to
his Father. "This is the only Source and everything shares Its attributes"
becomes "Father, we are all like You, because we are all Your Son." This Son
is us individually, but (given the context of the previous sentence) it is
also everyone and everything.

With this direct, intimate statement, the prayer is beginning to wrap up and
lead us into the place it has been talking about. The implied "we" of
sentence 6 continues into the prayer's concluding line.

<7. We come to You in Your Own Name today, to be at peace within Your
everlasting Love>.

The ideas the prayer has described are a kind of red carpet it has laid out
before us. Now, with this concluding line, we are meant to walk that carpet
straight into the reality of what has been discussed, the reality of God's
Love. We know that in doing so we are not just acting on our own. We are not
trespassing. We walk up to God's front door holding in our hand an
invitation from the Lord of the house Himself. We come to Him in His Own
Name. He Himself has rolled out the red carpet. How do we know this? As the
rest of the prayer says, He has already placed us forever within Himself. If
His Love is what created us and what surrounds us, and indeed is all there
is, where else would we go?

The situation we may have initially read into the idea for the day has now
been completely reversed. God's Love is not merely an aura that surrounds
us, a silent ghost we take with us on our busy tour through the world of
separate things. The world is the ghost; God's Love is the only reality
there is. It is the all-pervasive realm that beckons us beyond this shadow
world and into Itself. And not just us--It beckons everyone and everything;
all the countless minds that comprise the one Son of God.

Thus, rather than, "How nice of You, God, to come with me on my errands," we
conclude by saying, "<We> (the entire world and all living things) come to
<You>." We come to Him, to rest from our busy doings and nervous plans, to
be free of the endless parade of little objects scurrying through frantic
days. We come to Him, to leave behind the thousands of shadows that haunt
this unreal place and pass forever into the light of Heaven. As one Son, we
come to Him to forget all anxious separate identities as together we find
eternal rest in His boundless Arms. We come to Him to be at peace within His
everlasting Love.

"I am surrounded by the Love of God" means so much more than we ever would
have guessed at first. Holding in mind this deeper, broader, expanded
meaning, do you think that practicing this lesson would be any different?




From sue at circleofa.org  Sun Sep 21 10:02:01 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 10:02:01 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 265 - September 22
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAMPGUCbGLmVBkbEr/xLxdYYBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>


LESSON 265 - SEPTEMBER 22

"CREATION'S GENTLENESS IS ALL I SEE."

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

This lesson so clearly states how the world comes to be, apparently,
attacking us:

I have indeed misunderstood the world, because I laid my sins on it and saw
them looking back at me. How fierce they seemed! And how deceived was I to
think that what I feared was in the world, instead of in my mind alone.
(1:1-3)

I feel guilt over some aspect of myself. I project that guilt outward; I lay
my sins on the world and then see them looking back at me. "Projection makes
perception" (T-21.In.1:1). There is more than one place where the Course
says quite clearly that we never see anyone's sins but our own (for
instance, T-31.III.1:5). The world I see is the outward reflection of an
inward condition (see T-21.In.1:5). <The Song of Prayer> says:

It is impossible to forgive another, for it is only your own sins you see in
him. You want to see them there, and not in you. That is why the forgiveness
of another is an illusion....Only in someone else can you forgive yourself,
for you have called him guilty of your sins, and in him must your innocence
now be found. Who but the sinful need to be forgiven? And do not ever think
you can see sin in anyone except yourself. (S-2.I.4:2-4, 6-8)

"Do not ever think you can see sin in anyone except yourself." Wow! What a
powerful statement. "It is only your own sins you see in him." A lot of
people, including myself, have some trouble with this concept. I really
think our egos fight this, and use every possible way of refusing to accept
it.

A common reaction to statements like this in the Course is, "No way! I never
beat my wife. I never murdered or raped or betrayed the way he did." Where I
think we go off the track is in looking at particular actions and saying,
"They do that. I don't," and thinking we've proved that the sin we see isn't
our own.

The action is not the sin. The guilt is. The principle is much broader than
specific actions. The principle of attack is this: "It is the judgment of
one mind by another as unworthy of love and deserving of punishment"
(T-13.In.1:2). The person's action that we are judging isn't relevant; we
are seeing another person as "unworthy of love and deserving of punishment"
because we see ourselves that way first. We feel our own unworthiness,
dislike the feeling, and project it onto others. We find particular actions
to associate the unworthiness with that we don't perceive as being in
ourselves (although sometimes they are in us, just suppressed or buried);
that's exactly how we try to get rid of the guilt!

Projection and dissociation go on within our own psyche as well as
externally. When I condemn myself for, say, overeating, and think I feel
guilty because I overate, I am doing the same thing as when I condemn a
brother for lying or whatever. I am putting the guilt outside of myself in
one case; in the other case, I am putting the guilt onto a shadow part of
myself which I then disown. "I don't know why I do that; I know better."

When I feel guilty, I am actually disowning a part of my own mind. There is
some part of me that feels a need to overeat, or to be angry at my mother,
or to sabotage my career, or to abuse my body with some drug. I do these
things because I am guilty and think I need punishment. The original guilt
comes not from any of these petty things, but from my deep belief that I
have really succeeded in separating myself from God. I have actually
succeeded at making myself other than a creation of God. I am my own
creator. And since God is good, I must be evil. Deep down we think the evil
is in us, that we are the evil. We can't stand that idea, and so we push
away some part of our mind and our behavior and lay the guilt at its feet.

It is exactly the same mechanism at work when I see sin in a brother. But
from the ego's perspective seeing guilt in <someone else> is much more
attractive and does a better job of concealing the guilt it wants us to
keep; it puts the guilt completely away from myself. In reality, my brother
is a part of my mind just as much as the shadow self is a part of my mind.
The whole world is in my mind; my mind is all there is.

How deceived was I to think that what I feared was in the world, instead of
in my mind alone. (1:3)

He [one who identifies with the ego] always perceives this world as outside
himself, for this is crucial to his adjustment. He does not realize that he
makes this world, for there is no world outside of him. (T-12.III.6:6-7)

Take off the covers and look at what you are afraid of. (T-12.II.5:2)

We need to look at what we are afraid of until we realize that all of it is
in our own mind. When at last we recognize the truth of that, we will be in
a place where we can do something about it. Until then, we are helpless
victims.

We see sin in others because we think we have a need to see sin in others,
to avoid seeing it in ourselves. We believe in the principle that some
people are unworthy of love and deserving of punishment. Deep down we know
that we are one of the condemned, but the ego tells us that if we can see
the guilt out there in others, see them as worse than ourselves, we may
escape judgment. So we project the guilt.

What this Workbook lesson is saying is that if we lift the blot of our own
guilt off the world, we will see its "celestial gentleness" (1:4). If I can
remember that my thoughts and God's thoughts are the same, I will see no sin
in the world, because I am not seeing it in myself.

The world around us, therefore, offers us countless opportunities to forgive
ourselves. "Only in someone else can you forgive yourself, for you have
called him guilty of your sins, and in him must your innocence now be found"
(S-2.I.4:6). When someone appears in our life as a sinner, we have a chance
to forgive ourselves in him. We have a chance to let go, a bit more deeply,
of the fixed perception that what this person did makes him guilty of sin.
We have a chance to look past his harmful actions to see the underlying
innocence. We lay aside our conditioned judgment and allow the Holy Spirit
to show us something different.

It seems as if we are working with forgiving another person. In reality we
are always forgiving ourselves. When we find the innocence in that other
person, suddenly we know our own innocence more deeply. When we see what
they did as a call for love, we can more easily see our own misbehavior as
likewise a call for love. We discover a common innocence, a radical
innocence. It is absolute innocence, totally unchanged since the instant God
created us.

WHAT IS THE BODY?

PART 5: W-PII.5.3:1-3

The body is a dream. (3:1)

This whole melodrama of attacking and being attacked, victor and prey,
murderer and victim, is a dream, with the body playing the chief role. Think
about the implications of my body as a dream. In a dream, everything seems
completely real. I've had some really gross and terrifying dreams about my
body. Once I dreamed that all my teeth were disintegrating and falling out.
But when I woke up, nothing of the kind was happening. It was all in my mind
while I slept.

By calling the body "a dream," the Course is saying that what happens to our
bodies here is really not happening at all; it is happening only within our
minds. It is saying that the body itself is not happening; it is not a real
thing. We are not really here, as we think we are; we are dreaming about
being here. My son, who is working in computers in the field of virtual
reality, was once hooked up to a robot by computer, seeing through its eyes
and touching things with its hand.

He had the very weird sensation of experiencing himself on one side of the
computer lab while his body was on the other side; he even looked across the
lab and "saw" his own body, wearing the VR helmet. Our mind experiences
itself as being "here," on earth, in a body; but it is not here. <Here> is
not here. All of it is within the mind.

Dreams can picture happiness, and then very suddenly revert to fear; we've
all experienced that in dreams, most likely. And we've experienced it in our
"lives" here in the body. Dreams are born of fear (3:2), and the body, being
a dream, is born of fear also. Love does not create dreams, it "creates in
truth" (3:3). And love did not create the body:

The body was not made by love. Yet love does not condemn it and can use it
lovingly, respecting what the Son of God has made and using it to save him
from illusions. (T-18.VI.4:7-8)

The body was made by fear, and the dreams that result will <always> end in
fear.

The body was made by fear for fear, yet "love can use it lovingly." When we
give our bodies to the Holy Spirit for His use, we change the dream. For now
the body has a different purpose, motivated by love. 




From sue at circleofa.org  Mon Sep 22 06:19:43 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:19:43 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 266 - September 23
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAKhxHfE2rrVMu0CGU6fGsZEBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



Lesson 266 - September 23

"My holy Self abides in you, God's Son."

Practice Part II 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: I have found it helpful to make today's idea more
specific. Think of someone in your life and say,< "My holy Self abides in
you, [name].">

Commentary

These are not words I speak to Jesus, or to the Christ as some abstract
being. These are words I speak to the person who is sitting next to me, to
my boss, to my family members, to whomever is in front of me or in my mind.
"My holy Self abides in <you>, God's Son."

If my mind is enlightened, everyone is my savior. Everyone points the way to
God (2:2-3). Jesus is saying here, "Wake up! You can't miss the way home.
The world is filled with people, and <every one> is pointing the way to God.
Every one reflects His Son. Your Self is in every one of them. Just let your
eyes be opened and I will give you the sight to see it."

God's Will is your salvation. Would He not have given you the means to find
it? If He wills you to have it, He must have made it possible and easy to
obtain it. Your brothers are everywhere. You do not have to seek far for
salvation. Every minute and every second gives you a chance to save
yourself. (T-9.VII.1:1-6)

Nothing shows quite so vividly how skewed our perception is than our
reaction to this lesson. Perhaps right now you are thinking, "Yeah, sure.
They certainly don't seem like saviors and bearers of God's holy Voice to
me!" If we are honest, most of us will admit that we perceive our brothers
as the stumbling blocks and barriers on the way to God, if not outright
antagonists. Let us, then, consider the possibility that the reason we see
them that way has nothing to do with them, or with the truth. Let us
consider that perhaps we have laid our sins on them, and see them looking
back at us (W-pII.265.1:1). Let us begin to realize that our perception is
truly upside down, and needs to be turned right side up.

May I open my eyes today. May I remind myself with each person I encounter,
or think about, "She (or he) is my savior, my counselor in sight, the bearer
of God's Voice to me." Let me ask, "God, give me the sight to acknowledge my
Self in this person." Let me acknowledge that seeing anything but this,
which God says is their reality, is my own sickness of mind, my own twisted
perception, and let me bring those perceptions to the Holy Spirit for
healing.

What Is the Body?

PART 6: W-PII.5.3:4-5

Our minds chose to make the body. We made it from fear, and we made it to be
fearful. Once that purpose is in motion it will continue, unless the purpose
is changed. The body "must serve the purpose given it" (3:4), and it will
continue to serve fear as long as we do not question the premises on which
it was made. It will continue to preserve our separateness, fencing us in,
protecting our little self from love.

Our minds have great power, however. Our minds can choose to change the
purpose of the body. Our minds do not serve the body; the body serves the
mind. If, within our minds, we change what we think the body is for, the
body will begin to serve that new purpose. Instead of using the body to keep
love out, we can begin to use the body to extend love, to express love; to
heal rather than to hurt, to communicate rather than to separate, to unite
rather than to divide. Instead of being a fence, it can become a medium of
communication, the mechanism by which the Love of God can be seen and heard
and felt and touched in this world.

This is our function here.

Fail not in your function of loving in a loveless place made out of darkness
and deceit, for thus are darkness and deceit undone. (T-14.IV.4:10)

We are here to express the Love of God, to be the Love of God in this dark
and loveless place. God's formless Love takes form in our forgiveness, and
in our merciful and grateful acknowledgement of the Christ in all our
brothers and sisters (see W-pI.186.14:2), as we reach out our hands to help
them on their way (see W-pII.5.4:3).




From sue at circleofa.org  Tue Sep 23 05:51:27 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:51:27 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 267 - September 24
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAFkgZzOdjbJBiRfSQnEVF0MBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 267 - SEPTEMBER 24

My heart is beating in the peace of God.

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

This is a short Workbook lesson, but very powerful. It is one of those very
positive lessons that say wonderful things about us. If most of you are like
me-and I am certain you all are to some degree-often when you read a lesson
like this, there is a kind of mental filtering going on. The lesson says,
"Now is my mind healed" (1:4), and you instantly edit it. "Well, partly."
"My mind will be healed some day." "My mind is in the process of being
healed." We dilute the meaning. When it says, "Peace fills my heart, and
floods my body with the purpose of forgiveness" (1:3), we are tempted to
deny that it is so and to think, "Peace is not flooding my heart." The ego
is constantly trying to negate the truth about ourselves.

What the Course is saying about us often does not fit the picture of
ourselves we have in our mind. The very low opinion of ourselves that we
constantly maintain is one of our major problems. When we do a Workbook
meditation, we need to practice letting go of that poor self-image for a
while. The Course is constantly saying that we actively block from our
awareness a true picture of who and what we really are. The Workbook
meditations are part of our training in letting go of our self-made picture,
and accepting God's picture instead. Somewhere within each of us there is a
dim flicker of recognition that this paragraph is about us, and not about
some impossibly distant saint. It is that little spark, as the Course calls
it, that the Holy Spirit wants to fan into a flame.

That is the whole point of the Course. We are underestimating ourselves,
undervaluing ourselves. "I am a messenger of God" (1:6). I really am. I may
feel like something much less than that, but I am always that messenger. I
always have all I need to save the world.

As you read this lesson today, attempt not to edit the lesson in your mind.
When it says, "Now is my mind healed," just let that be true for you right
now. Don't worry about how you were all day yesterday. Don't worry about how
your mind will be after the meditation is over. Just for that moment, let it
be so. Agree with the way the vision of Christ sees you, and say in
response, "Yes, now is my mind healed."

Read slowly, to give yourself time to absorb each phrase. We need time,
mostly to spot the negative responses that the ego mind will be throwing up
and to, quite simply, ignore them. Don't fight or argue with the ego. Just
decide, for these few minutes, not to listen. Just decide, for these few
minutes, to listen to the Voice for God.

WHAT IS THE BODY?

Part 7: W-pII.5.4:1-2

What a shift there is as paragraph 4 begins! We have been told the body is a
fence to separate parts of our Self from other parts (1:1); the body is
impermanent (2:1, 3); the "proof" in its death that God's eternal Son can be
destroyed (2:9); and a dream, made of fear, made to be fearful (3:1, 4).
Now, with a change of purpose, everything suddenly changes: "The body is the
means by which God's Son returns to sanity" (4:1).
It's worth stopping and repeating that to myself: "The body is the means by
which God's Son returns to sanity." With all the apparently negative things
the Course says about the body, this is an astonishing statement. Most of
us, certainly myself, could do with a good, solid shot of some positive
thoughts about the body like this. I find that making it personal helps to
bring it home: "My body is the means by which God's Son returns to sanity."

Instead of the negative, almost hateful attitude of some religions towards
the body, attitudes that make a person impatient to get out of the body and
leave it behind, this statement of the Course gives one an affirmative
attitude towards the body. "This body is my way home!" How can the body be
our way back to sanity?

It becomes that when we change its purpose. We substitute "the goal of
Heaven" in place of "the pursuit of hell" (4:2). We begin to use the body to
express and to extend the love that the body was made to shut out, and shut
in. Clearly this implies physical activity in the world, since anything
involving the body is, by definition, physical. 

Remember what Jesus said to us back in Review V:

<For this alone I need; that you will hear the words I speak, and give them
to the world. You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands through which I
save the world.	(W-pI.rV.In.9:2-3)>

This is how the body becomes "the means by which God's Son returns to
sanity." As we give our bodies to serve God's purposes in this world, using
our voices, our eyes, our feet, and our hands to give Jesus' words to the
world (perhaps verbally, or by example, or through physical assistance,
helping and healing), our minds are healed, along with the minds of those
around us. In this physical dream, God needs physical messengers. And you
and I are those messengers.




From sue at circleofa.org  Wed Sep 24 06:00:28 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:00:28 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 268 - September 25
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAMYxs0Zsgr5Coa7Sh9sfIZ8BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



Lesson 268 - September 25

"LET ALL THINGS BE EXACTLY AS THEY ARE."

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.

Practice suggestion: When I repeat this idea, I often add an extra word:
<"Let all things be exactly as they> really< are"> (or, making it more
specific, <"Let this thing be exactly as it really is">). The word "really"
emphasizes that accepting things as they are does not mean resigning
ourselves to the "what is" seen by our eyes. Rather, the world we see is
itself our refusal to accept what is, our attempt to be God's critic (1:1),
our projection of separation onto Heaven's unity (1:3). Accepting things as
they really are means <refusing> to accept the world our eyes see, refusing
to accept it as real, and accepting instead only the pristine reality of
Heaven as "what is." This is how we "let all things be exactly as they are,"
and this is how we find our peace.

COMMENTARY

Seen in the light of forgiveness, this lesson teaches us that to criticize
what <is> is to judge and condemn God. To let all things be exactly as they
are is a form of forgiveness. To insist that things be different is to judge
and to be unforgiving. As Paul Ferrini wisely says in his little book <From
Ego To Self>,1 "Only when I resist what is here do I desire what is not."

We are all filled with wishes for how things should be. We are all
discontent with things as they are. Is anybody really perfectly content with
everything in their life?

Yet this is what this lesson counsels. It could seem to be cruel counsel,
both towards myself and towards the world around me. If we are in unpleasant
conditions--sick, trapped in a destructive relationship, dying of an
illness, financially strapped, miserably unhappy--how can we say in any
honesty, "Let all things be exactly as they are"? It seems a horrible thing
to affirm.

If we see horrible conditions around us, in family, friends, or the world,
with people in some condition like the above, how can we say, "Let it be"?

Our reluctance to say these words under such circumstances testifies to our
firm belief that the conditions we see are real. If we believe the suffering
is real, of course we do not wish that it continue! We cannot say it if what
it means to us is "Let my mother be dying in pain," or "Let my husband
continue to drink and beat me." Of course not!

The lesson is really a call to recognize that the conditions of suffering we
see are not real. "Only reality is free of pain" (2:2). It is a call to
recognize that "nothing real can be threatened [and] nothing unreal exists"
(T-In.2:2-3). We cannot say "let it all be" until we first recognize that
"all" means only what is real, only what is of God. The rest is illusion.

To say, "Let all things be exactly as they are" is an affirmation of faith
that what appears to be pain and suffering is not really there. It is a
response to God's call, drawing us up out of the world of conditions and
into unconditional truth. It is a phrase that applies not to the world we
see with physical eyes, but to the world we can see only with the eyes of
Christ. It is an affirmation that we want to see the solid reality behind
all the illusion of pain.

It does not mean that we turn our eyes on a brother in suffering and pain,
see that, and callously say, "Let that be exactly as it is." That is the old
Christian mistake of "It's God's will." It is not God's will that we suffer
and die. To think so is to see the error, make it real, and then blame it on
God.

This lesson is about not seeing the error at all.

<Do not see error>. Do not make it real. Select the loving and forgive the
sin. (S-2.I.3:3-5)

To say, "Let all things be exactly as they are" is an affirmation that
conditions do not need to change for love to be real. Only the love is real,
no matter what the conditions appear to be; that is what this is
proclaiming.

The error, the pain and suffering we see, does not come from God. It is not,
therefore, real. It is only a projection of our collective minds. It is
there because we have allowed ourselves to wish conditions would be
different. Ending the wish for different conditions is the start of
dispelling the illusion. Resigning as creator of the universe is what is
called for. We think we can change this, fix that, patch this up, and the
world will be a better place. It is our interference with reality that has
made it what it is! It is our interference that must stop.

While we are in the world of illusion, we must function there sanely. If I
cut my finger, I don't let it bleed untended because I know the body is not
real. No, I put a Band-Aid on it. Yet as I do that, let me recognize that
what I am doing is "magic." I'm just patching the illusion, and it isn't
really important. It just makes for a more comfortable illusion. Making the
illusion more comfortable is fine, but in the end it is completely
irrelevant.

The same therefore applies to extreme conditions. Suppose I am dying of
cancer. Of course I treat it. How I treat it does not really matter. I may
use medical therapy. I may try to heal myself through diet. I may do
affirmations and mental conditioning. All of it is magic, all of it is
patching the illusion. In the final evaluation, it does not matter if my
body lives or dies. "Let all things be exactly as they are" in this
circumstance means, "What happens to my body is not what counts. Giving and
receiving love counts. I don't need to be free of cancer to be happy; what
happens to my body does not affect who I really am."

If, when ill, I live with a continual insistence that the condition of my
body must change in order for me to be happy, I am merely perpetuating the
error that made me sick in the first place. "Let it be" does not mean I
cease all effort to change conditions, but it does mean I give up all
investment in the outcome. It means that, however the conditions evolve and
manifest, I rest assured that they cannot affect the ultimate good of all
living things.

"I do not perceive my own best interests," says Lesson 24. Saying "let it
be" is the natural outcome of realizing our ignorance. Operating from our
extremely limited viewpoint, we can still attempt to change conditions, but
as we do so, we recognize that there is a lot we don't understand, a lot we
haven't taken into consideration because, from the perspective of a
separated mind, we simply cannot see it. So we do what we see to do, but we
are not attached to the outcome, recognizing that whatever our efforts, the
results are in God's Hands, and God's Hands are good Hands.

Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane is an example of this attitude: He
said, "Let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou
[wilt]" (Mt 26:39). From his perspective as a human individual, Jesus did
not want to be nailed to a cross. From his trust in God, he could still say,
"Let it be unto me as You will."

It is necessary for the teacher of God to realize, not that he should not
judge, but that he cannot. (M10.2:1)

To say "let it be" is to realize this, and to affirm that God's judgment is
perfect. We are not to judge anything that happens. "Today I will judge
nothing that occurs" (W-pII.243.Heading). That means we don't judge anything
bad, and <neither do we judge it good>. We don't judge at all. What is, is.
Period. Let it be.

WHAT IS THE BODY?

PART 8: W-PII.5.4:3-4

How does it work out, practically, when we change the purpose of our bodies
from murder to miracles, from the pursuit of hell to the goal of Heaven?
"The Son of God extends his hand to reach his brother, and to help him walk
along the road with him" (4:3). It's that plain and simple. We reach out and
help a brother. We put our hand under his elbow when he stumbles and help
him walk with us, to God. We allow ourselves to be the first to smile in
welcome. We drop our pride and become the first to seek reconciliation in a
wounded relationship. We visit a sick friend. We <help> one another.

Some people say that since our only responsibility is accepting the
Atonement for ourselves, there is no connection to outward actions. It's all
a mental thing. I say, "Bushwa!" Accepting the Atonement for ourselves is
the sole responsibility of "miracle workers." This means that if you <do>
accept the Atonement, you will work miracles. If you aren't working
miracles--bringing healing to those around you-- you aren't accepting the
Atonement. The two go hand in hand. Read the paragraph in which that "sole
responsibility" statement occurs (T-2.V.5), and notice what follows that
statement. By accepting the Atonement, your errors are healed and then your
mind can only heal. By doing this,

you place yourself in a position to undo the level confusion of others. The
message you then give to them is the truth that their minds are similarly
constructive. (T-2.V.5:4-5; see entire paragraph)

In order to be a miracle worker, you must accept the Atonement for yourself;
to heal the errors of others, you must have your own errors healed first
(see M-18.4).

If you are familiar with Christian theology, this confusion about healing
myself versus healing others is like the old argument about salvation by
grace versus salvation by works. Doing good works will not save you, the
Bible says; salvation is only "by grace through faith." And yet, it also
says that if you <have> faith you will do good works; the good works are the
evidence of the faith. Therefore, "faith without works is dead" (Jas 2:20).
Similarly, accepting the Atonement is all that is necessary, but the
evidence of doing so, the "proof" you have accepted healing for your own
mind, is the extension of miracles of healing to those around you. The
Course repeats this over and over, saying that the way you know you are
healed is by healing others.

That is why miracles offer <you> the testimony that you are blessed. If what
you offer is complete forgiveness you must have let guilt go, accepting the
Atonement for yourself and learning you are guiltless. How could you learn
what has been done for you, unknown to you, unless you do what you would
have to do if it <had> been done for you?" (T-14.I.1:6-8)

So what these sentences are saying (back in "What Is the Body?") is that the
body becomes holy as we use it in service to others. By extending our hands
to help, we bring healing to our own minds. Reaching out instead of drawing
back, seeking to heal rather than to wound, is <how> we accept the
Atonement, or better, how we demonstrate to ourselves that we have accepted
it. The mind that has accepted Atonement can only heal, and by healing, we
know our true Self. Notice here that <the body> "serves to heal the mind"
(4:5). Yes; the mind is what needs healing, but the body serves to heal it,
by acting in healing love towards our brothers.





From sue at circleofa.org  Thu Sep 25 05:56:16 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:56:16 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 269 - September 26
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAAhqGDgcdYZKt/GMzYTrz6wBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 269 - SEPTEMBER 26

MY SIGHT GOES FORTH TO LOOK UPON CHRIST'S FACE

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.

Practice suggestion: You may want to apply this idea specifically to people
in your life. Say, <My sight goes forth to look upon Christ's face in
[name].> You might then imagine a giant luminous face of Christ looming
behind the body of this person as a symbol of what true perception will show
you.

COMMENTARY

Today's lesson is about forgiveness; about choosing in advance to see
innocence in others. Let's recall a few things that earlier lessons have
taught us about forgiveness. Lesson 126: Giving forgiveness is how I receive
it.

How is this lesson on <giving is receiving> related to forgiveness? It
discusses how, in the world's understanding of forgiveness, there is no room
for us to receive anything from forgiveness. <When you 'forgive' a sin,
there is no gain to you directly> (W-pI.126.3:1). If I believe in the
reality of someone's sin but <forgive> it, it is just an act of charity to
someone unworthy of it. I am giving him a gift he does not deserve. It could
easily appear that I in fact am losing something, not gaining anything.
There is no release for me in doing something like this.

Only when I have truly received forgiveness for myself can I give it; and
only in giving it do I recognize I have received it. I don't even know what
it is! How could I recognize it? So in order to know what forgiveness is,
and to know that I have it, I have to give it away. I have to see it <out
there> to recognize it <in here>. When I do I will also begin to understand
that there is no difference between out there and in here.

The idea that giving is receiving, that the <giver and receiver are the
same> (W-pI.126.8:1), is a necessary preparation for releasing our minds
from every bar to what forgiveness really is. Judgment is based on
separation and differences: the sin is in someone else and not in me. He is
bad, I am better. Forgiveness is based on unity and sameness: there is no
<other> to be done to or to do it to me. We are both innocent. There never
was any sin. We are all part of the same Heart of Love.

LESSON 134: TRUE FORGIVENESS FORGIVES ILLUSIONS, NOT REAL SINS.

Here we learn that the major obstacle to learning true forgiveness is the
belief that we must forgive something real. We believe that sin really
exists, that injury has really been done. It is impossible to forgive a sin
that we believe is real. <It is impossible to think of sin as true and not
believe forgiveness is a lie> (W-pI.134.4:2). "Guilt cannot be forgiven"
(W-pI.134.5:3).

This is really a major obstacle. I can testify that it is possible for
something you once thought of as sin to be seen as no more than a mistake, a
call for love. I've experienced that. I didn't make the shift myself. We
can't do it ourselves. But we do need to be willing to have the shift occur.
I know there are many things that, consciously or unconsciously, I still
judge and condemn as sin, as evil. Every time I encounter judgment in my
mind, I need do nothing but recognize that it is there and believe that
there is another way to perceive it. I affirm I am willing to see it
differently. I ask for help in understanding forgiveness through this
experience. And I wait.

I allow myself to look at the anger, the fear, the resentment I may be
feeling. I don't hide it; that just perpetuates the wrong-mindedness. I am
willing to see my own feelings differently as well. I recognize that perhaps
I am judging myself for feeling them. So, as I did with the external
judgment, I do with the internal: I affirm I am willing to see it
differently and ask for help. And I wait.

What happens then is of God. A shift occurs in my mind. It may occur first
in regard to the other, the <sinner>; it may occur first in regard to
myself. Since the other and myself are one and the same it doesn't matter
how it is experienced, or in what order. In the shift, I come to see
something I am judging, in the other or in myself, as a call for love. I
come to see that regardless of the appearance it takes, innocence lay behind
the act. I may see that I was angry because I wanted to be close to the
other person and they pushed me away; I wanted joining, oneness. There is
nothing to be guilty of there. I thought I saw attack and attacked back. Now
I see there was no attack; we both want the same thing, so I let go of my
attack and respond with love. Or I may see how the other person was fearful,
felt threatened by me somehow (and I know I am not a threat), and so flipped
out. My return attack was just the same mistake. I see there was no sin in
what happened, and the whole thing can simply be dropped from my mind.

TODAY'S LESSON: WE SEE INNOCENCE WHENWE CHOOSE TO SEE IT.

 <My sight goes forth to look upon Christ's face.> <Today I choose to see a
world forgiven> (1:5). Seeing the <face of Christ> is a symbolic way of
saying we see innocence, we see a world forgiven.

In this lesson we see that forgiveness is a choice. When we decide that what
we want to see is innocence, we will see innocence. The Holy Spirit will
give us the gift of that sight. <What I look on belongs to me> (1:5). If I
see mistakes out there, they are my mistakes. If I see innocence, it too is
my own. If I can see innocence-and I will if I choose to, I will if I ask
to-it is the proof of my own innocence. Only the innocent can perceive
innocence. Only those who perceive innocence in others know their own
innocence. The guilty will always perceive guilt. Perceiving innocence in
others is the means God has given us to discover our own innocence. We can't
find it if we look directly. It's like trying to see your own face; you must
have a mirror. The world is my mirror; it shows me the state of my own mind.
The image in the glass is only an image, only an illusion, but in this world
it is a necessary illusion, and will be until there is a knowing that exists
without perception.

WHAT IS THE BODY?

Part 9: W-pII.5.5:1-3

What was pointed out in Lesson 261 is echoed here: <You will identify with
what you think will make you safe> (5:1; see W-pII.261.1). If we think our
physicality and individual identity are what make us safe, we will identify
with them; if we understand that being the love that we are is what gives us
safety, we will identify with that, rather than the body and ego. If we
identify with the body, our life becomes a cramped, futile attempt to
preserve and protect it. If we identify with love, the body becomes simply a
tool used to express our own loving being, which is God expressed through
us.

<Your safety lies in truth, and not in lies> (5:3). The body is a lie about
us; it is not what we are. The truth about us is that we are love: <Teach
only love, for that is what you are> (T-6.I.13:2). That is where our true
safety lies, and that is what we must learn to identify with.

What seems <more real" to me today? My body, or my loving Self? Where does
my emphasis lie? On what do I center most of my time and attention? What
takes most of my care and concern?> The practice of the Workbook lessons can
be very revealing in this regard, as I begin to realize that rarely, if
ever, do I fail to take care of my body, giving it food, clothing,
cleansing, and sleep. How well do I care for my spirit? When my attention to
my spiritual needs and to the expression of my inner nature has become
paramount, when I would rather miss breakfast than miss my quiet time with
God, I will know that I have begun to shift my identity from lies to truth.

If in observing myself I realize that this is not yet the case, let me not
make myself guilty about it. Guilt accomplishes nothing positive. My
identification with the body is not a sin. It is simply a mistake, and an
indication that I need to practice unlearning that identification, and
learning to identify with love instead. When I practice guitar and notice
that I am missing a certain chord, I do not feel guilty about it; I just
intensify my practice of that particular song until I learn it.

I can even use my habit of identifying with the body to help me form a new
focus. When I shower or wash my face I can use the time to mentally repeat
the day's lesson and think about its meaning to me. (What other more
valuable thing is occupying your mind at those times, anyhow?) When I eat, I
can remember to give thanks, and let it be a trigger to remember God. If I
am alone, perhaps I can read a page from the Course, or a lesson card, while
I eat. I can make the body into a tool to help me walk the road to God.




From sue at circleofa.org  Fri Sep 26 05:59:17 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:59:17 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 270 - September 27
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAIGJRECVzgtNj46R7EOwRdQBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 270 - SEPTEMBER 27

"I WILL NOT USE THE BODY'S EYES TODAY."

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

Of course this does not mean I will walk around with a blindfold on,
crashing into things. I will not, however, let my sight stop at the
physical. I won't "use" the information of the eyes, I won't depend on that.

Christ's vision...has the power to translate all that the body's eyes behold
into the sight of a forgiven world. (1:1)

There's that word "translate" again. What I want to see, today, my Teacher,
is a forgiven world. I want to see the truth behind all appearances. My
function, the function of every Son of God, is that of a translator. We are
here to heal the world by seeing it differently, and thus we also heal
ourselves.

One of the chief components of that different vision is <lack of judgment>.
No condemnation. No making wrong. No demand for outward changes. Seeing that
everyone and everything is worthy of love, exactly as they are. No
comparisons or evaluations, no making of differences, but seeing everything
as part of one whole.

To forgive is to overlook. Look, then, beyond error and do not let your
perception rest upon it, for you will believe what your perception holds.
Accept as true only what your brother is, if you would know yourself.
Perceive what he is not, and you cannot know what you are, because you see
him falsely. (T-9.IV.1:2-5)

You do not understand how to overlook errors, or you would not make them.
(T-9.IV.2:2)

We are told to overlook error. Then we are told we don't know how to do it.
Instead, we are to turn to the Holy Spirit. It seems to me a fundamental
lesson of the Course is "Don't trust your perceptions." Don't use the body's
eyes. Don't think that seeing begins and ends with physical sight and our
own mental interpretations.

What we do as we go through the world is something like this: We perceive
something. Our mind may interpret it, almost certainly will, and nearly
always with some evaluation, some judgment. At that point, what we need to
do is recognize that judgment is impossible for us, and just let it go. We
abandon our perception. We don't think of it as dangerous, or fearful, or
sinful; we just recognize that it is meaningless (see M-16.10:8). That
giving up of our own perceptions is the crucial step. "And for this
'sacrifice' is Heaven restored to his awareness" (M-16.10:10).

We step back and take what appears to be a very inferior position. We say,
"I do not understand what this means." This is the <very first lesson> in
the Workbook, "Nothing I see...means anything" (W-pI.1.Heading).

And then we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. "I am willing to see things
differently." That's it. If you get this far, you will become hooked,
because God will answer that prayer. You <will> see things differently.
Maybe not at once, not in that instant, but it happens. How? I don't know!
Understanding the <how> of the Atonement is not our job, not our function,
but His.

WHAT IS THE BODY?

PART 10: W-PII.5.5:4-8

Love is your safety. Fear does not exist. (5:4-5)

When I do not use the body's eyes, this is what I will see. When I let go of
my unquestioning trust in my perception of things, I will see love. My
body's eyes were made out of fear and made to see fear. I need to end my
reliance on this mechanism of perception, and ask for a new one: Christ's
vision.

The statement "Fear does not exist" may seem incredible to me, particularly
as I advance in my practice of the Course, because one of the consequences
of practicing the Course is that all kinds of buried fears bubble up in my
mind. The Course teaches me, however, that what has happened is this: In
order to hide my own true nature of love from me, my ego invented all kinds
of fear; then I found them so terrifying that I repressed or denied them and
covered them over with deceptive disguises, supported by my perception of
the world. Now, as I let go of my confidence in my perception, the disguises
are dissolving, and the fears I have buried are surfacing. This simple
message, then, is an antidote to those surfacing fears: "Fear does not
exist." In other words, what I am seeing is not real; it is an illusion I
have made.

How can I escape from my fears?

Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you are home.
Identify with love, and find your Self. (5:6-8)

As I begin to look within, I see all these different forms of fear. Rather
than fighting the fear, or running from it, or burying it again, I need to
learn to see past it to the love it is hiding. We have to go through what
the Course calls "the ring of fear" in order to reach our Self, our home
(see T-18.IX, especially paragraphs 3 and 4). This is where most of us get
stuck. The fear seems too real.

Let me, today, allow the Holy Spirit to show me that this seemingly
impenetrable wall of fear is really nothing. It is made of clouds that
cannot stop a feather. Let me take His hand and allow Him to lead me past it
to the truth, to my Self, and to my home. Let me choose to identify with
love, and find my safety.




From suelegal at gmail.com  Sun Sep 28 19:42:26 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:42:26 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 271 - September 28
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAMCUG3naIghAqZL0otYtWxMBAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



LESSON 271 - SEPTEMBER 28

"CHRIST'S IS THE VISION I WILL USE TODAY."

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

Once again the Workbook faces us with the fact that we <choose> what we want
to see, and see it. It tells us this process is going on continuously,
constantly: "Each day, each hour, every instant, I am choosing what I want
to look upon, the sounds I want to hear, the witnesses to what I want to be
the truth for me" (1:1). The latter part of that sentence is significant
because it gives us the <reason> for our choice: we choose to see what we
want to be the truth for ourselves. For instance, if I am constantly seeing
people who are victims, it is because there is a part of me that wants to be
a victim. I may think that I do not want to be a victim, but if the
alternative is to be responsible for everything that happens to me--it
sounds pretty good! Every time I see a victim, I am secretly wanting to be
able to blame someone else for my faults.

The main point of this lesson is not our negative choices, however. The
point is that there is a choice. There is an alternative. If I listen to the
ego my choice will be to see sin, guilt, fear, and death. If I listen to the
Holy Spirit, however, I will want something different to be the truth about
myself, and therefore I will want to see something else in the world--and I
will see it. Seeing it in the world is how I will know it is the truth about
myself. Instead of wanting to see witnesses to sin, I will want to see
witnesses to the truth, and what I look for I will find.

As my perception merges more and more with Christ's vision, I will approach
the point where perception will entirely disappear (1:3). The changed
perception will show me what the Course calls the real world; the
disappearance of perception refers to the end of the world and our awakening
to Heaven.

How do I want to see myself? If I want to see myself as love, let me seek
today to see love in my brothers and sisters. If I want to see myself as
innocent, let me look for innocence in others. If I want to see myself as
without guilt, let me seek to see others without guilt. Today, let me
remember:

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you
will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of
him you will think of yourself. (T-8.III.4:1-4)

Each one you see in light brings your light closer to your awareness.
(T-13.VI.10:3)

Teach no one that he is what you would not want to be. (T-7.VII.3:8)

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

PART 1: W-PII.6.1:1-2

Christ is God's Son as He created Him. (1:1)

This is what we are learning to see in one another, so that we can remember
to see Him in ourselves. Christ is the original creation of God, before we
"remade" him, and painted another image over God's masterpiece. We wanted to
be something else, and so we have perceived something else in everyone
around us. Now, we are learning to look past the images we have made to
rediscover the hidden masterpiece beneath the forgery.

He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well.
(1:2)

Christ is <the> Son of God. We all are aspects of that one Son. (I believe
that part of the reason the Course uses "Son" rather than "sons and
daughters" is because the latter phrase denotes a separation which does not
exist in God's creation.) Our original Self, our only real Self, is a Self
we share with everyone. One reason we resist knowing this Self is that it is
not "my" self alone; it is <our> Self. To claim Christ as my Self, I cannot
exclude anyone, because the Self I am claiming is a universal Self, of which
everyone is a part.

Not only are we united with one another in this Self, we are also united
with God as well (1:2). Without God this Self would not exist; He sources It
and sustains It. It cannot <be> apart from Him. It cannot be independent of
Him. Nor can It oppose Him in any way; all of the characteristics of this
Self arise and emerge out of God's own Being.





From suelegal at gmail.com  Mon Sep 29 06:09:24 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:09:24 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 272 - September 29
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAANgn8m1MwHBBjozc4DGVH5IBAAAAAA==@gmail.com>



LESSON 272 - SEPTEMBER 29

"HOW CAN ILLUSIONS SATISFY GOD'S SON?"

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.

Practice comments: Notice the response to temptation instructions in
paragraph 2. They ask us to watch our minds today for any instance in which
we hear some earthly thing "call to us to stay and linger in a dream" (2:2).
Instead of answering this call, "we turn aside and ask ourselves" (2:2),
<"How can illusions satisfy God's Son?"> I recommend trying this practice
now. Think of an earthly thing that is calling to you. See your mind going
toward it, but then turn aside and ask yourself, <"How can illusions satisfy
me, when I am God's Son?">

COMMENTARY

The Course, like some TV commercials, is telling us to accept no
substitutes. We want "the real thing" (Classic version, of course). The
irony of it is that most of the time we allow ourselves to be satisfied with
illusions: illusions of love (special love relationships), illusions of
safety (financial security), illusions of meaning (fame, worldly rewards and
recognition). We allow ourselves to be content with dreams, and sometimes
even dreams within the dream, such as drugs and fantasies.

We do need lessons like these. We need to ask ourselves, "Can illusions
bring me happiness?" (1:4). We know the answer if we are willing to ask the
question. A Christian writer and missionary, Jim Elliot, once wrote, "He is
no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."(1)
Another missionary, Amy Carmichael, wrote, "It is the life that has no time
for trifling that tells."(2) When the glitter of the world attracts us, when
a special relationship seems to promise us meaning and fulfillment here, in
the world, let me remind myself: "I will accept no less than what You have
given me" (1:6).

We may find temporary pleasure and satisfaction in some of our illusions.
Ultimately, however, nothing can satisfy us but the memory of God (1:5).
Nothing can bring complete contentment except the knowledge that "I am
surrounded by Your Love, forever still, forever gentle and forever safe"
(1:7). Today, will I pursue yet another illusion? Or will I use my time
wisely, and choose Heaven and the peace of God?

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

PART 2: W-PII.6.1:3-5

Christ is "the Thought Which still abides within the Mind that is His
Source" (1:3). The Course teaches us that our reality is a Thought within
the Mind of God. Over and over the Course insists that ideas do not leave
their source. They remain within the mind that is thinking them. An idea
cannot be separate from a mind; it is a part of the mind, a function of the
mind that thinks it. And we are just like that in relation to God.
Separation between our Self and the Mind of God is no more possible than
separation between an idea and the mind that thinks it.

My true Self, your true Self, our true Self, is the Christ. Our Self has
never left our holy home (1:4) in God's Mind. That is fact. Based on that
fact, anything that appears to be contrary to it must be a lie, an illusion.
We are not wandering, lost, in this world, we are "at home in God, dreaming
of exile" (T-10.I.2:1). Our separation is only a dream, not a reality; this
is why the Course is so certain of the final outcome.

We have not left God, and because we have not, we have not lost our
innocence (1:4, also W-pI.182.12:1). All the awful things we may think we
have done or said have no reality in truth; they are part of the dream of
exile. We are still at home. Have you ever had a dream in which you did
something terrible or embarrassing, and then wakened, terrified, horrified,
only to experience a sudden relief? "It was only a dream!" All of us, one
day, will have that experience on a grand scale; we will awaken to realize
that this whole world was a dream that never happened. Despite all that we
have imagined, we will awaken and find ourselves "unchanged forever in the
Mind of God" (1:5).

(1) Shadow of the Almighty, by Elisabeth Elliot, page 15, Zondervan, 1958.

(2) God's Missionary, by Amy Carmichael, page 34, CLC Publications, Fort
Washington, PA; (c)1939. 2002 printing. 





From sue at circleofa.org  Mon Sep 29 06:10:10 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:10:10 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 273 - September 30
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAADrmBnvaAK9KjWv3Rqy+cT8BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 273 - SEPTEMBER 30

"The stillness of the peace of God is mine."

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.

Practice comments: Today's lesson again provides instructions for response
to temptation. Whenever you give way to a disturbance today, tell your mind
with certainty, "The stillness of the peace of God is mine." You then might
add some related thoughts based on this lesson's teaching, such as "Nothing
can intrude upon the peace God gave His Son," or "Nothing can rob me of what
He would have me keep."

COMMENTARY

I love the way the Course makes room for all of us, whatever our level of
attainment. Some of us, it says, may be "ready for a day of undisturbed
tranquility" (1:1). And for some of us, this may not yet be "feasible"
(1:2). If we have done the Workbook lessons from the beginning, we have
already done 272 lessons. Yet a day of undisturbed tranquility may not yet
be feasible. "Feasible" means "possible" or "doable." There is no sense of
putdown in this, no tone of saying, "Some of you haven't been doing your
work." It simply says it isn't possible for you-yet. Even the "yet" has
meaning, because it clearly states that it will be possible for us
eventually.

The author of the Course has total confidence in every one of us. Not just
those of us doing the Course, but every one of us. One day, it will be
possible for me, for you, and for everyone to spend a day in "undisturbed
tranquility." Isn't that wonderful to think about, if you aren't at that
place yet?

Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never
can be hurt, a deep, abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be
upset? 

All this forgiveness offers you, and more.	(W-pI.122.1:6-2:1)

The lesson suggests to us that if we are not yet ready to spend a day in
perfect peace, we can still be "content and even more than satisfied" (1:2).
The way to peace is also a way of peace. There is no need to be upset
because we cannot yet be perfectly peaceful! To lose what peace we have
because we are not perfectly at peace is not a productive state of mind to
be in. We can be at peace about not being at peace. That is where we begin.
We are content and satisfied to learn how a day of undisturbed tranquility
is possible.

We need to be happy learners, happy to be learning how to be peaceful, even
while we are not yet peaceful. And how do we learn that? 

If we give way to a disturbance, let us learn how to dismiss it and return
to peace. We need but tell our minds, with certainty, "The stillness of the
peace of God is mine," and nothing can intrude upon the peace that God
Himself has given to His Son.	(1:3-4) In other words, we simply instruct
our minds that peace has been given us by God. When disturbance arises, we
"dismiss it." This is the practice of mental vigilance so often taught in
the Text. We do not allow the disturbance to remain undisturbed; we
recognize it as something we do not want, and instruct our minds to return
to peace. It says we do this "with certainty." This is not a striving,
trying to shout down the ego. It is gentle but firm, calm and not anxious.
We are telling our minds, "Peace, be still." There is no stressed-out way to
peace. The words "The stillness of the peace of God is mine" come from a
place within us that is always at peace. In speaking them to ourselves with
quiet certainty, we have already connected with that place of peace within
us. And so the peace You gave Your Son is with me still, in quietness and in
my own eternal love for You.	(2:4)

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 3: W-pII.6.2:1-3

Christ is the link that keeps us one with God (2:1). If we have any
awareness at all of the Christ within us, it seems as if He is only a part
of us, perhaps a small part or an obscure part. That is not the reality
(3:2), but that is how it seems. And yet every one of us is aware of
something in us that is more than what we appear to be, something that links
us to God. We probably would not be reading this Course if we did not have
that awareness. And this part, small and obscure as it may seem, links us to
God. Somehow we know that.

If that link is real, then the separation is not real. It is "no more than
an illusion of despair" (2:1). If we are linked with God, one with Him, then
we are not separate, and everything that seems to tell us we are must be
illusion. In every one of us, in the Christ within us, "hope forever will
abide" (2:1). Something in us knows that this is true. The link with God has
not been broken. Each of us has this hidden ally in our hearts. Within me,
within you, there is the Christ. The Course relies on this fact totally
because Jesus, who remembered his Christ Self fully, knows that it is so.

Your mind is part of His, and His of yours.	(2:2)

He is there, in you. And you are in Him. All we are doing is, as the Bible
says, to let the mind of Christ be in us. We are recognizing this part of
our minds we have denied and doubted. His mind is in us, and this is our
salvation. It is part of us; we cannot be rid of it, even if we want to.

In this part of our mind, "God's Answer lies" (2:3). The Answer to
separation. The Answer to pain and suffering. The Answer to despair. The
Answer to every problem. The Answer is in you. The Answer is part of you. It
is not outside, not to be found in something in this world, nor in someone
else. You already have it. You already are it. The Answer is in you.

In this part of your mind, "all decisions are already made, and dreams are
over" (2:3). What this is saying is so wonderful we can scarcely believe it.
There is a part of our minds in which we all, every one of us, have already
decided for God. We have already chosen peace. We have already relinquished
all attack and judgment. And all of our dreams are already over. Armed with
this knowledge we can be absolutely certain that we will "make it." Because
the Christ in us has already made it.

All that remains to be done is to recognize that this "part" of us is really
all there is. All that remains is to let go of everything else but this. We
do not need to attain enlightenment; we need only accept that it is already
accomplished. This is the truth, and all we are doing in this world is
learning to "deny the denial of truth" (T-12.II.1:5), to let go of all the
"blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural
inheritance" (T-In.1:7).





From sue at circleofa.org  Tue Sep 30 05:52:08 2008
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:52:08 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 274 - October 1
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAHkKKD+0cr9BjNTtVIpZfR4BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 274 - OCTOBER 1

Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.

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.

Practice suggestion: Pick someone whom you expect to deal with today, but
whom you'd rather avoid. Say to him or her:

I let you be as God created you.
I give you the honor due your sinlessness.
I love you like a brother and like a friend.

Commentary

Give this day to Him, and there will be no fear today, because the day is
given unto Love.	(2:2) 

Fear is what happens when we shut off our awareness to Love. It is nothing
but the illusory absence of Love-<illusory> because Love is never absent.
Nothing but Love exists. Like the physical sun, Love is always shining. We
say sometimes that <the sun isn't out today.> In fact, of course, the sun is
out, but there is interference, clouds, something in between which is
blocking our awareness of the sun. We then experience darkness, which is no
more than the absence of light. Darkness is nothing in itself. When the
interference is removed, light is there, just as it always was.

So too, when we remove the interference to our awareness of Love, Love is
there and fear is gone. If we give this day to Love, there will be no fear.

It is easy to see how we can understand any form of fear as no more than a
call for Love. <Fear is a symptom of your own deep sense of loss>
(T-12.I.9:1). Fear is how we feel when Love appears to be absent; therefore,
it is simply an automatic cry for Love's presence. It is a call for Love,
and nothing more. Fear can take many forms-anger, worry, sadness, jealousy,
sickness, or an addictive desire for a thing or for a person-but all of
these are just forms of fear. When I am aware of them in myself, let me
bring them to the Holy Spirit so that He can reinterpret them (see
T-12.I.8:8-9), so that I can understand that all forms of fear are nothing
but an unconscious call for Love (see T-12.I.8:13), and therefore they are
nothing to be guilty about.

When I was a child I believed that all sickness was caused by germs. I had a
pretty clear understanding that some kind of invader bugs got into my body
and messed things up; I could understand that. Even if metaphysically this
is not a true picture, nor even wholly true scientifically, it was what I
believed to be the truth. That was what real sickness was for me.

One day I was riding in the back seat of the car on a long drive, reading a
comic book. I started to feel sick. I guess I had never experienced motion
sickness before, so I must have been quite young. I thought I was <getting
sick,> and told my parents to stop the car because I was going to be sick. I
went into a service station restroom. As I walked in I felt less sick. I
used the toilet, and after a few minutes, I felt fine. I was utterly
baffled; what had happened to the sickness?

When I returned to the car and told my parents, they said, <Oh! You must
have been feeling carsick.> They explained to me that sometimes motion can
make you feel sick, but that it isn't the same as having the flu. I remember
clearly saying something like, <You mean I'm not really sick? I just feel
sick?> They more or less agreed with my interpretation. They told me it had
to do with the mind being confused because my eyes were looking at something
motionless while the rest of my body felt motion. In effect, they told me
the sickness was caused by false perception in my mind!

In my young mind, something clicked. I wanted to read that comic book! Even
though my parents advised against it, I went back to reading it. I started
to feel sick again. But I now knew the truth that I wasn't really sick! This
was a false sickness. There was no real reason (i.e., germs) to be sick. My
mind was doing it to me, so my mind could undo it. So, despite the nausea
and pain in my stomach, I went on reading. <I'm not really sick,> I told
myself. And the nausea went away, and I never had motion sickness again in
my life, except one time on an ocean liner in a very heavy storm, after all
eleven hundred people on the ship had thrown up except for me and another
dozen or so-I guess the <evidence> was just too overwhelming.

Just as that day I convinced myself that my sickness was not real-a very
clear lesson in my life of the power of the mind-the Holy Spirit wants to
convince us that our fears are not real. Just as I realized that day that
nothing was truly wrong with my body, He wants us to know that when we are
feeling fear, nothing is really wrong with our minds. Despite what we
perceive in the world, the Holy Spirit wants us to know that the fear is
being manufactured by our own minds; it is not real, because Love is never
absent and therefore there is no real reason for fear. You may feel fear in
one of its many forms-He never asks us to deny that, instead He asks us to
look at it and recognize it very clearly-but He does ask us to realize that
what we are feeling is false. It has no cause. It is just something
manufactured by a mind that has blinded itself to the truth. We don't even
need to cure our fear, because the sickness isn't real!

We will either love our brothers or fear them; those are the only two
emotions in this world, according to the Course (see T-12.I.9:5). To give
the day to Love means, then, that we will not react with fear to our
brothers. We will <let all things be as You created them> (1:1), and
therefore we will honor our brothers in their sinlessness. We will give each
of them, as the Son of God, <the love of brother to his brother and his
Friend> (1:1).
The path of the Course lies here, in learning to let go of our fears and to
respond to one another with love instead, honoring what we all are in truth,
instead of fearing what our brothers or sisters appear to be. This is how we
are redeemed (1:2); this is how light replaces all the darkness in the world
(1:3).

Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 4: W-pII.6.2:4,5

The Christ is the part of our mind in which God's Answer lies (2:3). This
part of our mind <remains untouched by anything the body's eyes perceive>
(2:4). Our mind, as we are aware of it, is more than merely touched by what
our eyes perceive; it is dominated by it, controlled by it, and tossed about
like a leaf in the wind (as advertisers well know!). But there is something
in us, somewhere in us, according to this statement, that is untouched and
unmoved by our physical perceptions. It remains perfectly calm no matter
what seems to be happening around us. It remains perfectly loving, no matter
what assault is made upon our love. This is the Christ, our true Self.

It is this part of ourselves we are practicing to become aware of. This is
the quiet center of our being that we are seeking to connect with in the
holy instants we spend, quietly listening. This is the Voice that we attempt
to hear, a Voice of majestic stillness and complete tranquility. The Christ
is not some alien being, something apart from us that we must learn,
somehow, to emulate. He is our Self. He is like the eye of the hurricane.
When our minds are agitated and seemingly out of control, we can, if we are
willing to leave the objects of our turmoil behind, enter that eye of the
storm and find the peace within ourselves that is always, always there. The
moment we do, the change is so startling it is unmistakable. The howling of
the wind ceases. The blast of the elements suddenly stops. There is nothing
but peace. In this still center of our being, all of the events of our lives
that have driven us to and fro, helpless in their grip, have absolutely no
effect whatsoever. And in that moment we know, <This is Who I am.>

Because of our confusion of mind, because we have made a seeming problem
where there is none, the Father has placed in Christ the <means for your
salvation> (2:5), the Answer to our illusions. And yet this Christ remains
untouched by the <problems> themselves, pristinely pure; He <knows no sin>
(2:5). The Answer to sin is incorporated within Him, and yet in Him the
problem being answered does not even exist. Christ's perfection has not been
sullied by our madness. He is still as perfect as the day he was created.
And He is me. <I am the holy Son of God Himself> (W-pI.191.Heading). Here,
in the stillness of Christ's being, I know that all my <sins> are nothing,
and without effect of any kind. Here I am more than guiltless; I am holy.
All things are holy. And nothing unreal exists.





From suelegal at gmail.com  Tue Sep 30 05:53:20 2008
From: suelegal at gmail.com (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:53:20 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] [RESEND] The Practice Instructions to Part II
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAC7L3/ab9KJEgI2CxETFzADCgAAAEAAAAJp06ptFPnpLuxgjnhBOpnABAAAAAA==@gmail.com>




The Practice instructions to Part II

PURPOSE: The introduction to Part II talks as if, in the remaining part of
this year, we are trying to reach the end of our spiritual journey: "This
year has brought us to eternity" (10:8). However, the Manual, in Section 16
("How Should the Teacher of God Spend His Day?") implies a more modest goal:
to reach a place where we practice because of our own motivation and
inspiration, rather than because a book is telling us to. This would
transform our practicing from a special assignment into a way of life. Part
II of the Workbook, with its absence of daily practice instructions, is an
important step in this direction. If here, in the relatively formless
landscape of Part II, your practice can blossom, rather than wither, you are
close to graduating from the Workbook.

I think we need to combine these two goals: We should aim for eternity,
realizing that by aiming high we will carry ourselves farther than if we
didn't, even though we may only get as far as weaning ourselves from the
Workbook's support. In other words, we should aim to graduate from time and
space, <so that> we can reach the more realistic goal of graduating from the
Workbook.

Reading the lesson: The lessons in Part II take a very different form than
in Part I. After the day's idea, we find just two paragraphs, both worded in
the first person, which expand and comment on the idea. This makes the Part
II lessons look much like what we see in most of the reviews, where the idea
for the day is followed by a series of "related comments" (W-pI.rI.In.2:3;
3:3) which are worded in the first person and expand on the idea. In the
reviews, these related comments become part of the exercises. We read them
over several times, we think about them, we repeat them to ourselves, we
savor each word. We make them our own, which is why they are worded <as if>
they are our own. We so fully engage them that reading them becomes more
like a practice than a simple act of reading.

It makes sense that we should use the comments in the Part II lessons in the
same way that we used the comments in the reviews, simply because the two
are so similar. And the introduction hints at this. For it speaks of our
reading of those paragraphs as an "exercise" (2:1) that is meant to induct
us (1:4) into "the periods of wordless, deep experience which should come
afterwards" (11:2). Let's look at how we can turn the reading of those two
paragraphs into a genuine exercise.

First, the< commentary paragraphs> (the nonitalicized paragraphs). I
recommend that you read these over slowly, perhaps several times, and
imagine that these really are your own thoughts (which is how they are
worded). To facilitate this, you may want to emphasize words like "I," "me,"
"my," and "mine."

Second, the< prayers>. These read as if you yourself are praying them to
God, and I recommend doing just that. Fix one sentence at a time in your
mind and then close your eyes and say that sentence to God. Try to really
mean it and expect Him to hear you. These appear to be designed to carry you
into the meditative state, and many of them virtually say that. Lesson 307
says of its prayer, "And with this prayer we enter silently into a state
where conflict cannot come" (W-pII.307.2:1). To enhance this effect, you may
want to pray the prayer several times.

Morning/evening quiet time: As long as you need for the effect you want.

The longer practice periods are meant to consist of Open Mind Meditation.
Begin by repeating the idea for the day, but in a special way: as an
invitation to God to come to you. "We say the words of invitation that His
Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us" (4:6). After
repeating these words, go into a time of expectant, wordless waiting (the
word "wait" here occurs six times). To wait normally means to stay
physically still in anticipation of some event. Here it means to stay
<mentally> still in anticipation of a wondrous event: the dawning of God on
your mind. Wait as if holding your breath for this event. Wait with an
attitude that "the memory of God is shimmering across the wide horizons of
our minds" (9:5). Your waiting, then, though motionless, should be very much
alive. It should be filled with expectancy: "We...expect our Father to
reveal Himself, as He has promised" (3:3). The basis for your expectancy, in
other words, is your trust that God will keep His promises. He promised to
come to you when you asked. You are asking; He will come. Hold this state
without the aid of repeating words. However, whenever your mind wanders, you
should use words--repeat the idea to draw yourself back to this nonverbal
waiting. "We will use that thought...to calm our minds at need" (3:1).

If you find Open Mind Meditation either too challenging or too unrewarding,
I would recommend using either of the other two methods the Workbook has
taught: Down-and-Inward Meditation or Name of God Meditation. In fact,
Lesson 222 clearly instructs you to use Name of God Meditation: <"Father, we
have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds, as we come
quietly into Your Presence now"> (W-pII.222.2:1).

Hourly remembrance: One or two minutes as the hour strikes (reduce if
circumstances do not permit).

Do a miniature version of the morning practice. Repeat the idea as an
invitation to God, and then wait in wordless silence for Him to come to you.

Frequent reminder: As often as possible within each hour.

"Repeat [the idea], and allow your mind to rest a little time in silence and
in peace" (W-pI.rIII.In.10:5).

Response to temptation: When you are tempted to let upset cause you to
forget your goal.

Repeat the idea as a way of calling on God to dispel your upset (see 2:9 and
10:2).

Reading the "What Is" section: Before one of the day's practice periods (not
necessarily the morning one), read the relevant "What Is" section. Don't
just read it casually. Read it slowly and think about it "a little while"
(11:4).

* * *

LET US PRAY

What are we supposed to do with the prayers in Part II of the Workbook for
<A Course in Miracles>? There are 140 of them, one for each lesson. This has
puzzled many a Course student who, upon reaching Part II, finds himself
confronted each day with an italicized prayer directed at God. Is this
prayer offered by the author of the Course on our behalf? Do we simply read
it? Do we actually pray it? If so, why?

Actually, I am only <assuming> that this issue has puzzled Course students.
I have never really heard much discussion about these prayers. They sit
there on the page, staring at us every day for five straight months, but we
don't seem to talk much about them. The only perspective I recall hearing is
that they must be metaphorical because God can't hear our prayers.

Having done the Workbook several times, I too didn't know what to do with
these prayers. Yet, to be honest, I hadn't really confronted the question. I
would just dutifully open my book and read the prayer attached to that day's
lesson. The prayers generally struck me as being a kind of Course word
salad: a series of typical Course words--Christ, peace, joy, Heaven,
etc.--tossed together as one would toss a salad.

Then one day a few years ago, all that changed for me. I was on a short
retreat and, for some reason, the first thing I did was sit down and try to
discover what the Course wants us to do with its prayers. Having spent many
years studying the Workbook's practice instructions, I had learned that
virtually all our questions about practice are answered right in the
Workbook, if we pay careful attention. Now, for the first time, it occurred
to me that this ought to be true for those prayers; we should expect there
to be instructions for what to do with them.

The logical place for those instructions was the introduction to Part II,
since that is where we find the practice instructions for the entirety of
Part II, where the prayers are found. Within minutes I found two sentences
that ended my search and changed my relationship with the Course and with
God. Here they are:

We say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal
Himself, as He has promised. (WpII.In.3:3)

We say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for
Him to come to us. (WpII.In.4:6)

>From these sentences and the paragraphs around them I obtained the following
picture:

The Course has given us words (from the Holy Spirit) which we are to say to
God as words of invitation and welcome. Once we invite Him with these words,
we sit in a state of silent expectancy, waiting for Him to come and reveal
Himself to us in direct wordless experience.

What are these "words"? In this context, they are definitely the thought for
the day, the lesson title. But are they confined to that? Don't these
"simple words of welcome" also sound like they could be the prayers? After
all, like these words, the prayers are words given us by the Course which
are written as if we are saying them to God.

So I turned the page and looked at the first prayers in Part II. They
resoundingly confirmed what I was thinking. This is how the first prayer
begins:

<Father, I come to You today to seek the peace that You alone can give. I
come in silence>. (W-pII.221.1:1-2)

Just as the introduction described, in this prayer we state our intention to
have an encounter with God in the silence of our minds. The comments that
follow this prayer continue along the same lines: "Now [that we have said
this prayer] do we wait in quiet....We wait with one intent...[for God] to
reveal Himself unto His Son" (W-pII.221.2:1, 6). Here is exactly what the
introduction said: Once we say these words of welcome, we wait in silence
for God to reveal Himself to us.

The next prayer was very similar. In it we state our intention to silently
enter into an experience of God's Presence:

<Father, we have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds,
as we come quietly into Your Presence now, and ask to rest with You in peace
a while>. (W-pII.222.2:1)

This was a very intellectual process of detective work, but its results were
extremely practical: At last I felt I knew what to do with those prayers! I
am to say them directly to God as preparation for a direct wordless
encounter with Him.

So I immediately tried this out. I spent the next hour or so going through
the first twenty prayers in Part II, praying them as I had just discovered I
should. I will never forget that time. It was a pivotal moment in my journey
with the Course. Until that moment, I had no idea how much richness was in
those prayers. What seemed like word salad when read as information became a
wealth of emotional experience when repeated as prayer, when spoken to God.

I was astonished by the sense of loving intimacy with God that shone through
these prayers. I had never realized that <this> was how the Course wanted me
to think about God. God came across not as a remote metaphysical
abstraction, an impersonal essence that is completely unaware of us.
Instead, He came across as near and dear, as the most attentive, loving
Father one could possibly imagine, always there, always listening, always
answering, wanting only to lavish all of His Love upon us. "He covers me
with kindness and with care" (W-pII.222.1:4), one of the lessons said. And
that is exactly how I felt, blanketed in His kindness and care.

Since that day, these prayers have become a staple in my daily life. There
are few things I enjoy doing more than sitting down and spending time with
them. They have literally transformed my relationship with God. My sense of
God before was somewhat remote and abstract. Yet increasingly these prayers
have implanted in me <their> sense of God, so that my feeling for Him has
become a deep well of sustenance and comfort that I draw from daily.

As time went on, I fell into the habit of using these prayers before my
meditation time, because I found them to be the ideal way to prepare my mind
for seeking God in meditation. They gathered the scattered and chaotic
threads of my thought into a single desire to be with God. After I had been
using them in this way for some time, I remembered something: <This is
exactly what they are for>. This is what the instructions in the Workbook
say is their purpose. We are to use the words of these prayers to prepare
our minds for a direct, wordless encounter with God. I can attest to the
fact that they serve their intended purpose very well indeed.

I therefore encourage every student of the Course to avail him- or herself
of the great benefit of these prayers. Try them out and see if you are not
drawn to return to them. Here are some tips for getting the most out of
them:

1. <Focus on one line at a time>. Dwell on each line and let it sink in
before going on to the next.

2. <Say it directly to God>. When the prayer says "Father," have a sense of
speaking directly to God, and of Him in some sense hearing you.

3. <Make it from you>. When the prayer says "I" or "me," have a sense of you
being the one saying the prayer.

4. <Mean it>, as much as you can. Try to make it the prayer of your own
heart.

5. <Make it specific>. For instance, when the prayer we will use below says
"a something I have called by many names," list some of the names you have
given what you seek.

6. <Feel free to elaborate> on the prayer as it evokes additional thoughts
and feelings in you.

To try out this method of using these prayers, I would like to utilize the
following prayer from Lesson 231, "Father, I will but to remember You." My
suggestion is for you to repeat each line slowly, with concentration and
sincerity. Try to see the fullness of meaning contained in each line. Try
also to go through the prayer twice or more.

1. What can I seek for, Father, but Your Love?

2. Perhaps I think I seek for something else; a something I have called by
many names.

3. Yet is Your Love the only thing I seek, or ever sought.

4. For there is nothing else that I could ever really want to find.

5. Let me remember You.

6. What else could I desire but the truth about myself?

What was your experience in repeating these lines? Was it an experience you
want more of? I sincerely hope that the prayers in the Workbook will become
the blessing in your life that they continue to be in mine.