[acimlessons_list] LESSON 336 - DECEMBER 2

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 336 - DECEMBER 2

"Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined."

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.

COMMENTARY

In the Text, the Course speaks of the idea that minds are joined as
something that is experienced in a holy relationship, where two people have
joined together in common purpose, what is called in one place "a common
state of mind" (T-22.III.9:7). In a healthy holy relationship, the members
of that relationship regularly practice forgiveness with one another. The
result is stated as follows:

	This is the function of your holy relationship. For
	 what one thinks, the other will experience with him.
	What can this mean except your mind and your brother's
	are one? Look not with fear upon this happy fact,
	and think not that it lays a heavy burden on you.
	For when you have accepted it with gladness, you will
	realize that your relationship is a reflection of the
	union of the Creator and His Son.	( T-22.VI.14:1-5)

The idea that forgiveness is somehow connected to the experience of linked
minds is not intuitively obvious. Yet a little reflection seems to make it
clearer for me. If I am unforgiving toward someone, there is certainly a
barrier between our minds. I am mentally rejecting that other person and
have no desire whatever to find myself mentally linked to them. My judgment
is a strong "no" to that person's thoughts. When I forgive, my mind opens to
them. "Forgiveness <lets me know> that minds are joined" (my emphasis). It
opens the way for me to realize that this is true.

Our perceptions tell us, in a myriad of ways, that we are separate beings.
Forgiveness opens the way to an experience that takes us beyond perception
and shows us the underlying unity that perception cannot see. Forgiveness
"opens the hidden altar to the truth" (1:4). Within our minds we find "the
dwelling place of God Himself" (1:6). Forgiveness wipes "away my dreams of
separation and of sin" (2:1). In the experience of union with another human
being, we begin to remember our union with God and all creation.

WHAT IS THE EGO?

Part 6: W-pII.12.3:4

In contrast to the ego, our true Self, the Son of God, is surrounded by
everlasting peace. Where the ego sees itself at war with the universe, and
trembles constantly in fear of attack from every figure in its dreams, the
Son of God is "forever conflict-free." The Son rests forever "undisturbed,
in deepest silence and tranquility" (3:4).

	When we begin to get in touch with our Self, we experience
	a taste of that deep, silent tranquility. That is one of the
	characteristics of the holy instant. There is a peace in the
	holy instant that beggars description.

There is a silence into which the world can not intrude. There is an ancient
peace you carry in your heart and have not lost. There is a sense of
holiness in you the thought of sin has never touched.	(W-pI.164.4:1-3)

The ego, in isolation from the universe, can never know this peace. It comes
only from within our Self, being an attribute of Who we are. It has nothing
to do with external circumstance, and is unaffected by any such
circumstance. It is part of what we are, together.