[acimlessons_list] LESSON 318 - NOVEMBER 14

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 318 - NOVEMBER 14

"In me salvation's means and end are one."

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: In repeating today's idea, I have found it helpful to
reword it slightly: "I am the means of salvation and I am the end."

COMMENTARY

In other words, putting it very simply, the goal of salvation is what I
already am, and the vehicle for bringing about salvation is also what I am.
I am what salvation is, and I am the way to get there.

Salvation is the recognition of oneness; how, then, could there be any
single part that stands alone, or that is more or less important than the
rest? (1:2-3). The means of salvation is not in some other part of creation,
upon which I am dependent. The wholeness is what it is all about; therefore
the means of getting there and the "there" we are getting to must be all the
same thing, and therefore must be within me.

"I am the means by which God's Son is saved, because salvation's purpose is
to find the sinlessness that God has placed in me" (1:4).

The sinlessness is already there, in me, placed there by God. So since the
purpose of salvation is finding that sinlessness, I must be the means by
which salvation happens. I carry the Answer within myself.

I absolutely love these next few sentences. To me, if I can allow my
disbelief to be suspended just for a moment, just long enough to feel the
import of these words, I will "get" what they are saying:

     I was created as the thing I seek. I am the goal the world is searching
for.
     I am God's Son, His one eternal Love. I am salvation's means and end as
well.  (1:5-8)

I am the thing I seek because I have been It since I was created. I am
seeking only for my Self, and where can my Self be but in me? This is a
search that is guaranteed to succeed because I already am what I am seeking
for. The only reason there appears to be a journey of seeking is because I
have forgotten what I already am. There is really nowhere to go.

Try repeating to yourself, several times, "I am the goal the world is
searching for." Just try it and see how it feels. Notice the thoughts that
come up in denial of what you are saying, and take a good look at them.
Notice what it is you are believing about yourself that keeps you from
saying these words and meaning them with all your heart, and without
reservation.

We think we have a disease of sin that we are seeking to cure. A disease of
guilt and of separation. But the seeking is part of the disease! In fact,
there is no disease, and only the seeking makes it seem as if there is. If
we can, for a moment, stop presupposing that we are separate, we will simply
realize that we are not. Truth will dawn upon us of itself. Relax; you're
okay. We have no need but to accept the Atonement, to accept our oneness
with God, to realize that enlightenment is only a recognition, and not a
change at all. We don't need to change; we need to accept what we have
always been.

     Let me today, my Father, take the role You offer me in Your request 
     that I accept Atonement for myself. For thus does what is thereby 
     reconciled in me become as surely reconciled to You.	(2:1-2)

WHAT IS THE LAST JUDGMENT?

Part 8: W-pII.10.4:2-6

In the final evaluation, the Last Judgment is really just love. It is God,
acknowledging His Son as His Son (4:3). God's Love for us, in the last
analysis, is the <only> thing that will "heal all sorrow, wipe away all
tears, and gently waken" us from our dream of pain (4:3). We may think-and
indeed, we <do> think-that something other than God's Love will be able to
do that for us. We must think so, or else why would we spend so much time
looking for it? Yet love stands, waiting for us to receive it. We keep
looking elsewhere because, in our insanity, we are afraid of the love being
offered to us.

Our egos have taught us to be afraid of God, and afraid of His Love. We are
afraid it will somehow swallow us up and make us disappear. But would love
do that, and still be love? Twice (4:2; 4:4) we are told not to be afraid of
love. That is one way of looking at the whole of what we are learning: to
not be afraid of love. Instead, we are asked to "give it welcome" (4:5). And
it is your acceptance of love, and mine, that will save the world and set it
free.

We are so afraid that, by really opening to love, we will be hurt. Taking
the path of love so often seems to us to be taking the path of weakness.
There is so much emphasis on watching out for Number One, on setting our
boundaries, on keeping our distance, on avoiding being victimized. Those
things have their place, to be sure, and yet sometimes I think they are
excuses for separation, excuses for remaining isolated, excuses for avoiding
love. Giving love seems difficult, and receiving it even more difficult. Yet
in the end, opening to both giving and receiving love, which are the same in
reality, is all that is needed. We are love, and only in opening to love
fully will we discover that truth of our own Being.