[acimlessons_list] LESSON 300 - OCTOBER 27

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 300 - OCTOBER 27

"Only an instant does this world endure."

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: As an additional exercise, think of some inner pattern
of yours which you wish was gone, or some outer difficulty which you would
like to see vanish. Imagine the thing you choose appearing as a cloud in the
sky. Note how the cloud looks, what its shape, size, and color are. Then
repeat:

     Only an instant does this _______ endure.
     Let me see beyond that tiny instant to eternity.
     Then imagine the cloud vanishing.

COMMENTARY

What a great lesson with which to end a series of ten days in which we have
been thinking on the section "What Is the Real World?" The thought here is
the flip side of the holy instant. This world is nothing but the unholy
instant. Only two instants exist, and we are in one or the other all the
time.

The idea for today could be taken negatively, with a focus on the transitory
nature of life, "a brief candle," as Shakespeare called it, where our "joys
are gone before they are possessed" (1:1). On the other hand, the brevity of
this world's existence can be a very encouraging thought! "Yet this is also
the idea that lets no false perception keep us in its hold, nor represent
more than a passing cloud upon a sky eternally serene" (1:2).

The hallucination that is this world is nothing more than a passing cloud
that is crossing the serenity of our right mind. Our false perceptions will
endure no more than an instant, and then they will be gone. Like a child on
a long automobile trip, "soon" can seem to us to be forever, but our Father
knows the end is certain. The clouds of false perception will dissipate, the
sun will come out again, having been hidden only for an instant. Our minds
will recognize their own serenity once more.

      It is this serenity we seek, unclouded, obvious and sure, today.
(1:3) 

Let me, then, seek that serenity. Let me seek it now, and every time today I
can remember to do so. Let me open myself to that holy instant, and remember
that beyond the clouds that seem to darken my mind, the sun shines
uninterrupted. Let me be glad and grateful that "the world endures but for
an instant" (2:4). Let me "go beyond that tiny instant to eternity" (2:5).
Let me do so <now>. Let me reach to that other state of mind often today.

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 10: W-pII.8.5:3-4

"That instant," the instant in which God takes His final step (5:2), "is our
goal, for it contains the memory of God" (5:3). An analogy that comes to my
mind is that of a football team trying to win the Super Bowl. The "final
step" is the awarding of the trophy, so to speak. That is the team's
ultimate goal. But they actually have nothing to do with the trophy; their
part is to win games and arrive at that moment in victory. The trophy then
is given to them by the officials of the NFL. Although the image of striving
for a victory over opponents does not really fit our attaining the real
world, the general idea does. Our part is only getting to the place (the
real world) in which the awarding of the trophy (the memory of God) is
possible, but that last step is taken by God Himself. We are not learning to
remember God. We are learning to forget everything that makes that memory
impossible, to remove all the false learning we have interposed between our
minds and the truth. When we have removed the barriers, with the help of the
Holy Spirit, the memory of God will return to us of itself.

"And as we look upon a world forgiven" (that is the outcome of the work we
have done with the Holy Spirit, learning to forgive), "it is He Who calls to
us and comes to take us home" (God is the One Who takes us on this final
step beyond the real world), "reminding us of our Identity Which our
forgiveness has restored to us" (5:4). When we have forgiven the world, the
memory of God is restored to us, and also the memory of our own Identity in
Him. This latter part is not something we do; "it is He Who...comes to take
us home."

This is not just an interesting theological point. It has practical
implications. Sometimes, once we have entered on a spiritual quest, the ego
can distract us by getting us to try to go directly to God. We can get
caught up in a struggle to try to remember God, to try to recall our
Identity as the Son of God. Although this is our ultimate goal (like the
trophy in the Super Bowl game), if we make it the object of our direct
efforts, we will never get there. That would be like setting out to steal
the trophy instead of winning it legitimately. Our attention needs to be
focused on doing that which, if done, will prepare us to receive the memory
of God from His own hand. Namely, forgiveness. If we make remembering God,
or our Identity, our immediate goal, we are really trying to bypass the
steps that are necessary to reach that goal. We cannot skip those steps:

I will forgive, and this will disappear.

To every apprehension, every care and every form of suffering, repeat these
selfsame words. And then you hold the key that opens Heaven's gate, and
brings the Love of God the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to
Heaven. God will take this final step Himself. Do not deny the little steps
He asks you take to Him.	(W-pI.193.13:3-7)