[acimlessons_list] LESSON 277 - OCTOBER 4

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 277 - OCTOBER 4

Let me not bind Your Son with laws I made.

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.


COMMENTARY

When the Course uses the term <Son> in this context, with me addressing God
concerning His Son, the term usually refers to the whole Sonship, which
includes all of my sisters and brothers as well as myself. <Your Son,> in
other words, can be anybody on whom my mind focuses. So when I pray, <Let me
not bind Your Son,> I am referring to my boss, my spouse, my friends, my
family, or whomever I might encounter today. It's a good prayer to repeat
often as we interact with people today.

In our local study group the other night, one woman shared an insight she
had. She said that she had realized that whenever she placed a limit on
anyone else within her mind, if that person already was accepting such a
limit within their own mind, she was reinforcing it. And as well, she was
placing the same limit on herself. We can see this dynamic very strikingly
in a situation involving parents or teachers and young children. It
manifests quite vividly. The child will often manifest the limits that the
adult <sees> in them, whether those limits are real or not. The fact that we
do not see it so plainly with adults, however, does not mean that it is not
happening all the time. When we limit someone in our minds, we can be
literally binding them with laws that we made up.

<Your Son is free, my Father> (1:1). And each person we encounter today is
that Son, equally free. We have all read stories of how the refusal of a
parent, partner, or friend to accept the <normal> limits on someone else has
enabled them to transcend those limits-stories of <impossible> healings, and
so on. These are but elementary demonstrations of the power of today's idea.
The limits the Course has in mind are not so much physical ones, or even
intellectual ones, but limits such as guilt and sin. When we believe a
person is beyond help or beyond hope, we bind them with laws we have made.
We imagine an order of difficulty in miracles and impose it on those around
us. <There is no order of difficulty in miracles> (T 1.I.1:1) is the first
principle of miracles.

    He [whoever he or she may be] is not changed by what is changeable.
(1:4) 

He is still the perfect Son of God, as God created him. He has not been
marred or scarred by anything in this world because everything in this world
is changeable. The Son of God has not been changed by anything that has
happened to his body, which is changeable. A feather cannot scratch a
diamond, not even a pile of feathers, not even an ostrich plume. We are
being asked to remember this about all our brothers; they have not been
changed by what appears to be their sins or mistakes. Nor are they slaves
<to any laws of time> (1:5); this covers our persistent belief that a
healing may take a very long time, for instance. They are subject only to
one law: the law of love (1:6).

Our brothers are not bound by anything except their own beliefs (2:2). And
what they really are is <far beyond [their] faith in slavery or freedom>
(2:3). Their bound appearance is a flimsy thing, barely covering the solid
reality of holiness and love that lies beneath it. They cannot be bound
<unless God's truth can lie, and God can will that He deceive Himself>
(2:5). What kind of God would that be?

What if, today, I looked upon everyone around me from this frame of
reference? What miracles might happen? What chains might fall away? What
blind person might see again? What long-standing wound of the heart might be
healed? Exactly that is our function here as workers of miracles.

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 7: W-pII.6.4:1


>From within our innermost being, from the Christ in us, the Holy Spirit

reaches forth <to all your dreams, and bids them come to Him, to be
translated into truth> (4:1). Let me not, therefore, hide any of my dreams
from Him today. Let me not let a sense of shame keep me from bringing them
to Him. He will not condemn me. He is not shocked by anything He sees in us;
He is unshockable. On the contrary, <He loves what He sees within you>
(T-13.V.9:6), for He sees past the illusion of sin to the reality of love it
has been hiding.

In every thought of attack He sees our call for love. In every shudder of
fear He hears a call for help. In all our lust for the things of this world
He beholds our longing for completion. Whatever we bring to Him, He
translates into truth. Nothing is beyond redemption, nothing is outside the
reach of the Atonement. The task of the Holy Spirit is to <reinterpret [us]
on behalf of God> (T-5.III.7:7). All that we bring to Him, he will translate
into truth. But only if we bring it. If we hide it He cannot help us.

     Bring, therefore, all your dark and secret thoughts to Him, 
	and look upon them with Him.	(T-14.VII.6:8)
     Open every door to Him, and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten 
	it away. (T-14.VII.6:2; the whole paragraph should be read)