[acimlessons_list] LESSON 296 - OCTOBER 23

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 296 - OCTOBER 23

"The Holy Spirit speaks through me today."

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 suggestion: You may want to think of the people you expect to
interact with today, and with each one ask the Holy Spirit the following
questions:

     What would You say through me to [name]?
     How would You have me tell [name] that he/she is pure and holy as God
Himself?"

Quiet your mind. Try to clear it of any preconceptions. Listen deeply.
Repeat your questions if nothing comes at first. You may want to have pen
and paper in hand, and write down anything that comes to mind.

COMMENTARY

When I allow the Holy Spirit to <look through me> (yesterday's lesson),
sharing His perception, then He also <speaks through me>.

Not that I become God's gift to the world in the egoic sense, the oracle who
has the answer for all mankind. No, not that. But He does speak through me.
He speaks the word of welcome, of acknowledgment, of appreciation, and of
gratitude. Through me, the Holy Spirit communicates to my sisters and
brothers, "You are safe. You are whole. You are loved."

Having damned the world, now I would set it free. Having plastered everyone
with guilt, layering it on with a heavy hand, now I would lift that guilt
from everyone. Why grant this escape to all and sundry? Because I want it
for myself, and this is the only way to get it. If my brother dies guilty, I
die with him. What a tremendous privilege I have, to lift the guilt from
those around me, to let them know they are free!

Through me (and you) the Holy Spirit persuades the world to seek and find
the path to God. I am His representative on earth, an ambassador for the
Kingdom of God. To those who have not learned as yet to listen to His Voice
on their own, I represent Him, speaking His words, portraying His attitude
and His Love to every person I encounter. That is my function. That is my
only purpose. That is my life.

         I would be savior to the world I made. 
         For having damned it I would set it free.	(1:3-4)

Am I willing to become savior to my world? Some of the time I find myself
wanting to escape it, to just let it fall into ruins and be done with it.
The Course is clear on this point: I cannot fly off to Heaven myself and
leave the world behind. I cannot reach heaven without my brothers.

The weary feeling toward the world, the sense that "I am so bone-tired of
all of this mess," hides my own judgment on myself. Deeply guilty of my own
continued separation from the Father, I want to lay the blame on the world.
I want to be able to feel, "It is this tiresome place that keeps me from my
peace." Peace is here; peace is now. Peace, and Heaven itself, are in me,
with me wherever I go. I do not need to fly off, and nothing needs to
change.

"The Holy Spirit needs my voice today" (1:1). We live in a conspiracy of
silence. There are many, far more than we know, who have caught sight of
Heaven. We are among them. Yet we fear to speak because we fear people will
mock us, people will think we are crazy.

How often have we hungered, craved with a deep yearning, for someone who
would dare to say, in the midst of fear, suffering, loss, and terror, "I am
at peace. The peace of God is very real to me." Today, be the one to answer
another's yearning. "We teach.what we would learn" (2:1).

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 6: W-pII.8.3:4-5

When our mind has forgiven itself, it is "at peace within itself" (3:4), and
the world such a mind sees arises from that inner peace. As we have already
seen, inner peace without self-forgiveness is not possible. Likewise, seeing
a world of peace comes as we extend the peace within ourselves outward. We
had this stated clearly way back in Lesson 34:

          Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. 
          It must begin with your own thoughts, and then extend outward. 
          It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception 
           of the world arises.	(W-pI.34.1:2-4)

A mind that has learned to forgive itself and be at peace "is kind, and only
kindness does it look upon" (3:5). I have heard several spiritual sages
remark that, if spirituality were to be boiled down to only two words, they
might be, "Be kind." I have encountered a number of people in my life who
set themselves up as very spiritual, perhaps as spiritual authorities, and
in the end the thing that led me to mistrust their claims was simply this:
They were not kind. I have detected this same tendency in myself as well! It
is far too easy to be caught up in being "spiritually correct" or being
right, and to lose sight of kindness.

When I have encountered the murderous ego in myself, and have learned to
forgive it; when I have discovered my own belief in my weakness and frailty,
and learned to forgive it; when I have foundered in doubt for years, and
learned to forgive it; when I have discovered how often I do not live up to
my own high standards, and learned to forgive it; when I have struggled with
my own stubborn unbelief, and learned to forgive it-then, I will be kind. I
have learned to be kind by being kind to myself. Let me engrave this lesson
on my heart: <The mind that has forgiven itself is kind, and only kindness
does it look upon>.

If I am quick to see danger lurking in those around me, and to question
another's kind intentions, it is most likely because I am quick to question
my own, and have not learned as yet to forgive myself.