[acimlessons_list] Lesson 239 - August 27

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 239 - August 27

"The glory of my Father is my own."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Prt 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: As you repeat today's idea, be aware that "glory"
means "divine radiance." Thus, according to this idea, whatever holy light
radiates from God is your light as well. Try to imagine this as you repeat
the idea. I have found it helpful to add the following lines (based on
paragraphs 1 and 2): <"I claim this glory, setting all false humility aside.
I see it in my brothers and realize this glory unites us with each other and
unites all of us with God.">

COMMENTARY

"Let not the truth about ourselves today be hidden by a false humility"
(1:1).

One thing I am aware of as I have not been before while doing the Workbook
is that when it uses the words "we," "us," and "ourselves," it is not
referring to just us students of the Course. The "we" includes Jesus. After
all, it is Jesus who is speaking throughout the book. This is no ordinary,
generic "we" that any author might use. Jesus is identifying himself with
us, and us with him, each time a third-person pronoun is used.

The "truth about ourselves" is the truth about you, me, and Jesus. In
recognizing that, I get a sense of his joining with me that I've never quite
had before. And I see in his use of the terms a purpose, to focus my
attention on the sameness of himself, myself, and my brothers.

When I see traces of sin and guilt "in those with whom He shares His glory"
(1:3), I am seeing them in myself. That is a false humility! When I see my
brother as guilty or sinful it is because I am putting myself in that same
class, and thus hiding the truth about myself. Guilt can take a seemingly
saintly form: "We are all just poor students of the Course, weak and frail
and constantly failing." And that guilt, that false humility, obscures your
glory and my own.

It is true that we are all just students, that we are on the lower rung of
the ladder and just beginning to be aware of all we really are. It is false
spirituality to pretend to what we do not experience. But it is false
humility to constantly emphasize our weakness by judging or focusing on
failures. We all have egos, but we also all share the same glorious Sonship.
We need to spend time, from time to time, giving thanks for "the light that
shines forever in us...We are one, united in this light and one with You, at
peace with all creation and ourselves" (2:1, 3).

What I dwell on in my brothers is what I am seeing and dwelling on in
myself. How I view my brothers only reflects my view of myself.

Perception seems to teach you what you see. Yet it but witnesses to what you
taught. It is the outward picture of a wish; an image that you wanted to be
true. (T-24.VII.8:8-10).

"How can you manifest the Christ in you except to look on holiness and see
Him there?" (T-25.I.2:1). In other words, you manifest the Christ in you
only by looking on your brother and seeing the Christ in him.

Perception tells you <you> are manifest in what you see. (T-25.I.2:2)

Perception is a choice of what you want yourself to be; the world you want
to live in, and the state in which you think your mind will be content and
satisfied....It reveals yourself to you as you would have you be.
(T-25.I.3:1, 3)

If I would not hide the truth of my own glory, I cannot hide that of my
brother. "What is the same can have no different function" (T-23.IV.3:4). If
I deny the truth in my brother, I am denying it to myself. I am denying it
in him <because> I am denying it about myself. When I mentally separate
myself from someone, and make him or her less than myself by judging, I am
seeing only what my mind is doing to myself. I am hiding my own glory, and
therefore judging another, projecting the guilt outside. My judgment of
another can then become a mirror to show me that I have forgotten who I
really am. It can remind me, cause me to remember, and cause me to choose
again, to remember my status as Son of God, "at peace with all creation and
[myself]" (2:3).

WHAT IS SALVATION?

Part 9: W-pII.2.5:1-2

We turn from the world to the holy place within; we enter the holy instant,
where our illusions fall because we no longer support them, and we begin to
see with the vision of Christ, seeing the real world. And <then we return to
the world>. "From here we give salvation to the world, for it is here
salvation was received" (5:1). This movement is repeated again and again in
both Workbook and Text: Away from the world of dreams--into the holy
instant--returning to give salvation to the world. The Course does not plan
for us to retreat from the world, but to save it. It does not urge us into a
withdrawn, contemplative life, but urges us <from within the state of mind
we find in contemplation> to offer what we have found to the world.

"The song of our rejoicing is the call to all the world that freedom is
returned" (5:2). Our inner healing bubbles over in a "song of our
rejoicing," and that song, that ebullient joy, becomes the very thing that
calls the world back to its freedom. Nothing is so healing as a person whose
face is radiant with joy. It is not so much that we come to the world
preaching a new religion (see W-pI.37.3:1-2), but that we transform it by
our joy. We represent a new state of mind. As the Manual puts it, we "stand
for the Alternative" (M-5.III.2:6). We save the world by being saved.