[acimlessons_list] LESSON 341 - DECEMBER 7

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 341 - DECEMBER 7

"I can attack but my own sinlessness, 
And it is only that which keeps me safe."

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: This is yet another favorite prayer of mine. I've laid
it out on separate lines to aid in praying it, and added some extra thoughts
to each line.

1. Father, Your Son is holy.
	And Your Son is me.
	You are my Father, Who loves me more than any earthly father could
imagine.
	Your Love created me holy, and that is how I remain, no matter what
I think of myself.

2. I am he on whom You smile 
	Your Smile is everything to me.
	It is my sun, my Source of life, in which I abide.
	What could be more joyous than feeling Your Smile shining on me?

in love and tenderness so dear and deep and still 
	Let me know the love of Your Smile, the tenderness of it.
	Let me feel how dear is Your Love, how deep, how still.
	
the universe smiles back on You, and shares Your Holiness.
	Your Holiness lies in Your loving Smile.
	In smiling back on you, we share Your Holiness.

3. How pure, how safe, how holy, then, are we, 
	How pure are we. How safe are we. How holy are we.
	Let me feel this purity, rest in this safety, shine in this
holiness.

abiding in Your Smile, 
	Basking in Your Smile.
	Living in Your Smile like flowers live in the sunlight and turn
their faces toward its warmth.

with all Your Love bestowed upon us, 
	All of Your Love. How could that be?
	Let me know the joy of feeling all of Your Love bestowed on me.

living one with You, 
	With no distance between Us, no space for hate or discord to arise.
	Living inside the warmth of Your Smile.

in brotherhood and Fatherhood complete; 
	The experience of brotherhood I long for is there, in Your Smile.
	The perfect Father I long for is there, in Your Smile.

in sinlessness so perfect that the Lord of Sinlessness conceives us as His
Son, 
	Only the perfectly sinless could be the Son of the Lord of
Sinlessness.
	And in my perfect sinlessness, I am Your Son.

a universe of Thought completing Him. 
	I and my brothers are a universe of thought.
	So pure, so sinless, so vast, that we actually complete You.
	What more hallowed honor could there be?

Commentary

Whenever I attack anyone I attack myself. When I see sin in another, my own
sinlessness is being attacked, and only that keeps me safe. God says I am
sinless; who am I to disagree? And why would I do that? 

	I am he on whom You smile in love and tenderness so
	dear and deep and still the universe smiles back on
	You, and shares Your holiness.	(1:2)

How foolish, then, to attack at all, when any attack is an attack on what I
am! How foolish to so attack the wonder of what I am in a vain quest for
some other, lesser identity! Why would I jeopardize my experience of God's
deep tenderness?

	...abiding in Your Smile...		(1:3)

What a wonderful thought! Sometimes I have met a person whose smile was so
radiant I felt as if I could sunbathe in it. Imagine basking in God's Smile!
What a warmth of love beams from such a smile! Let me spend a little time
now just luxuriating in its compassionate glow.

We live one with Him, "in brotherhood and Fatherhood complete" (1:3). The
oneness we enjoy is not just with the Father, but with all our brothers as
well. This is the state we are meant to abide in forever. It is the state we
<are> in forever, if we are only willing to enjoy it and set aside every
thought of attack. "The Lord of Sinlessness conceives us as His Son, a
universe of Thought completing Him" (1:3). As such we can be only
sinlessness itself. My attack threatens nothing but my awareness of this
perfect sinlessness.

	Let us not, then, attack our sinlessness, for it contains
	the Word of God to us. And in its kind reflection we are 
	saved.	(2:1-2)

WHAT IS A MIRACLE?

Part 1: W-pII.13.1:1-3

	A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really
	change at all.	(1:1-2)

The miracle <corrects>; it does not <create>. It does not make anything new;
it merely adjusts a mistaken assessment of what already is. As Lesson 341
says, we already are sinless. We do not need to become sinless. All that we
need to do is to end our attack on our own sinlessness.

We think of a miracle as some amazing change in the way things are. But a
miracle, as the Course sees it, changes nothing. It simply takes away a
false perception. It removes the veneer of sin and guilt we have laid over
our innocence, and reveals the unchanging innocence we have attempted to
hide.

A miracle often has external effects, although not always:

	Miracles are expressions of love, but they may not always
	have observable effects.	(T-1.I.35:1)

When there are such effects, something in the illusion seems to change,
often drastically. Someone who was sick gets well. Two people who were at
war suddenly make peace. Yet that is the effect of the miracle, not the
miracle itself. The effect simply reveals in form what has always been true
in reality-the "sick" person was always whole, the "warring" friends were
always joined as one mind. The observable effect shows us that the form was
never real in the first place; but the miracle is the perception that saw
that before it was an observable effect, and by realizing the falsity of the
illusion, changed the illusion.

	It [a miracle] merely looks on devastation, and reminds
	the mind that what it sees is false.	(1:3)

The miracle looks on the illusion, and reminds the mind that it is illusion.
We do see "devastation" in this world, but the miracle reminds us that what
we see is false. We see a person's mind twisted with guilt; the miracle
reminds us that the guilt is as unreal as its apparent effects, and enables
us to see the person's wholeness and innocence behind the illusion they
present to the world.