[acimlessons_list] LESSON 330 - NOVEMBER 26

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 330 - NOVEMBER 26

"I will not hurt myself again today."

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: Think of your judgments toward another person. Realize
that these judgments hurt <you>. Then say:

	I will not hurt myself again today.
	I will not teach myself that I am a sinner.
	Let my forgiveness teach me that I am God's Son.

COMMENTARY

Whenever I think I am less than what God created, I hurt myself. And only
myself. I do no real damage, but I have the entirely realistic illusion of
pain, sacrifice, and suffering. All my physical and emotional senses confirm
its reality; only the vision of Christ sees past the illusion.

There is a strong passage in the Text that tells how important it is not to
depend on what our eyes and ears tell us, to know that it is only the
projection of our own thoughts:

	The secret of salvation is but this: That you are doing
	this unto yourself. No matter what the form of the attack,
	this still is true. Whoever takes the role of enemy and of
	attacker, still is this the truth. Whatever seems to be the
	cause of any pain and suffering you feel, this is still true..
	Let them be as hateful and as vicious as they may, they could
	have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it
	is your dream.	(T-27.VIII.10:1-6)

The evil dream results from a false picture of myself as something less than
the Self which God created. I still believe myself to be capable of sin and
capable of suffering. Because I believe that of myself, I believe it of
others, and I project my belief onto them. I project my sin and my guilt
onto them. Every time I see sin or weakness in a brother, it is only a
reflection of my own thoughts about myself. "It is your dream" that you are
seeing. You are not seeing something real, but a masterful, near-perfect
illusion, projected from your incredibly powerful mind. It is the projected
image of your own thoughts about yourself that is "hurting" you.

If I think I am weak, if I think my life is in a mess, I am not seeing my
true Identity. None of this is really happening. I am living a bad dream, a
dream about myself. From a metaphysical standpoint, nothing happening in my
life really matters at all. It is just a bad dream. (It <does> matter as a
reflection of my state of mind, however.)

We are being "saved from what we thought we were" (2:3), and the way toward
that deliverance is to understand that "life is but a dream," as the old
round says. The way of deliverance is to forgive. To understand when I think
I see something worthy of my judgment and condemnation that somehow, in some
twisted way, all I am seeing is my own thoughts projected outward. And to
choose, in that moment, to think differently. To see the situation which I
thought justified my anger turned into a situation that justifies my love.
"Here is a poor, confused brother, just like me, who has lost track of his
true Identity with God. I am seeing him as guilty only because I am
projecting my own guilt. I choose not to add to his illusion by broadcasting
guilt onto him. I choose instead to direct my love to him that he may begin
to awaken, as I have begun." And I know, in so doing, that I am giving that
love to myself, I am contributing to my own awakening.

More to the point for me personally are these lines: 

	Why should we attack our minds, and give them images
	of pain? Why should we teach them they are powerless?
	(1:2-3) 

What am I teaching my mind by the thoughts I am thinking? What am I teaching
my mind by feeling guilty? I'm a man under reconstruction, I'm not finished
yet. If I didn't need rehabilitation I wouldn't be here! Let me observe my
thoughts today and see how they attack me if I choose to listen to the ego,
and how they build me up when I listen to the Holy Spirit.

WHAT IS CREATION?

Part 10: W-pII.11.5:2

	We hear His Voice, and we forgive creation in the Name
	of its Creator, Holiness Itself, Whose holiness His Own
	creation shares; Whose holiness is still a part of us.

His Voice is calling us to "forgive creation." We have looked on God's
creation-ourselves, our brothers and sisters, and all the rest that makes up
creation-and we have pronounced judgment on it. We have seen guilt and
ugliness where God created only beauty and holiness. In this world, we
cannot truly create nor extend love in the purity that belongs only to
Heaven, but we can forgive. We can end our fault-finding, and lift our
judgment and condemnation from everything we see. Every moment offers us an
opportunity to do this; every encounter is a chance to practice forgiveness.

Whatever we look upon without seeing the holiness of God in it, we need to
forgive. To see anything other than God's holiness reflected everywhere is
an act of unforgiveness, a condemnation of God's creation. When something
appears unholy, we need to ask the help of the Holy Spirit to see past
appearances to the truth of God's holiness those appearances are hiding. Sin
is an illusion, and only holiness is true.

In a sense, then, all that the Course is teaching us is to acknowledge God's
creation everywhere, in everything, and above all, in ourselves. Our
Creator's "holiness is still a part of us." Let us say to everyone we meet
(in our thoughts, our words, and our actions):

	I would behold you with the eyes of Christ, 
	and see my perfect sinlessness in you.	(W-pI.161.11:8)