[acimlessons_list] LESSON 272 - SEPTEMBER 29

[Sue Roth]

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.