[acimlessons_list] Lesson 184 - July 3

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 184 - July 3

THE NAME OF GOD IS MY INHERITANCE.

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

Purpose: To go past the inheritance you gave yourself-the little, separate
things of the world, each with its own name-and experience the inheritance
that God gave you: everything, all of Heaven. This experience will help
<make your weak commitment strong; your scattered goals blend into one
intent> (W-pI.In.181-200.1:1).

Morning/evening quiet time: At least five minutes; ideally, thirty or more.

The practice in this lesson is the same as yesterday-what I call Name of God
meditation-with perhaps a slightly modified emphasis:
* Close your eyes and repeat today's idea one time.
* After that, simply <repeat God's Name slowly again and still again>
(W-pI.183.6:1). As you repeat this Name (remember you can use a name of your
own choosing), realize that you are calling upon the awareness of all of
reality, including the true reality of all your brothers. You are really
asking for the inheritance God gave you as His Son. He has passed on to you
everything He has, which is everything there is. This is what you are asking
for, so ask with desire.
* When your mind wanders to all the little names that denote the things of
this world, use God's Name to dispel those names, remembering that
everything that is real has only one Name.

Hourly remembrance: One or two minutes as the hour strikes (reduce if
circumstances do not permit).

Do a short version of the morning/evening exercise. Close by asking for
God's guidance for the coming hour and thanking Him for His gifts in the
past hour.

COMMENTARY

There is a lot we could think about in this lesson. The way names, which are
symbols, are based on separation and distancing of things. The way that
perception is built up by these names and distinctions. How all of this
forces us to view wholeness as an enemy. The way that the learning of the
world consists primarily in learning all these names and ways of classifying
things.

All of this is in contrast to the reality that is represented by the Name of
God. The Name of God stands for wholeness, oneness, <the one Identity Which
all things share> (10:2). Our perception has taught us an illusion, based on
thousands of names for discrete parts we see as separate things; reality,
however, is wholeness, undifferentiated, unseparated. The picture of parts
we have manufactured hides the reality of the wholeness from us.

So, then, are we to attempt to completely set aside our perception of parts
with separate names, and to live, somehow, seeing only the oneness? Is it
somehow <wrong> for us to use the names and symbols of the world, to act as
though Marilyn is different from Bob? Are we to treat a bluebird like our
own baby? No. The lesson affirms the absolute truth, but it does not insist
we attempt to make this world fit into that picture.

First, it says quite clearly that learning all the little names and symbols
of separation <is a phase of learning everyone who comes must go through>
(7:2). As some teachers of transpersonal psychology (the branch of
psychology that teaches that ultimate wholeness transcends individual ego
development) have said, you cannot transcend the ego until you have
developed a healthy ego. Ego development seems to be a necessary step in our
overall growth. Children have to become healthy, adult egos before they can
successfully go beyond the ego. If an adult is still wrestling with problems
of personality development that, in <normal> growth, should have been
handled in childhood or adolescence, those problems probably need to be
addressed, on their own level, before the person seeks to transcend their
ego entirely.

I am extrapolating on the lesson a good deal here, and expressing what have
to be classed as opinions, not necessarily something taught by the Course.
But I do think this section comes pretty close to implying this: EVERYONE
has to pass through the <teaching of the world> (7:1) stage before they can
begin to question its premises. We do not want to stop short at the teaching
of the world (7:4), but it does seem we have to pass through it. <In its
proper place, it serves but as a starting point from which another kind of
learning can begin> (7:5).

Not only do we all need to pass through the world's kind of learning as a
starting point, but after we have begun to <go beyond all symbols of the
world,> there is still reason for us to continue to use them: we have a
teaching function (9:1). We still continue, for instance, to call people by
name, to treat them as individuals with individual needs, but we are <not
deceived> (9:3) by these apparent differences. The names and symbols of the
world are necessary for purposes of communication, but <they become but
means by which you can communicate in ways the world can understand, but
which you recognize is not the unity where true communication can be found>
(9:5). We are using the symbols of the world to communicate the fact of
wholeness; we are using symbols to undo the symbols.

This is a tricky game. It is easy, remaining in the world and playing by the
rules of separation, so to speak, to forget the reality these symbols of
separation are hiding. That is exactly why the practice of holy instants is
so important!

Thus what you need are intervals each day in which the learning of the world
becomes a transitory phase; a prison house from which you go into the
sunlight and forget the darkness. Here you understand the Word, the Name
which God has given you; the one Identity which all things share; the one
acknowledgment of what is true. And then step back to darkness, not because
you think it real, but only to proclaim its unreality in terms which still
have meaning in the world that darkness rules.	(10:1-3)

Practicing with the Name of God enables us to let go of <all foolish
separations-which kept us blind> (14:3). In our quiet times we remember the
wholeness and forget the differences. We may still see differences, but what
we see has not changed the truth (13:3). All things still have one Name. In
our practicing we renew this awareness, and then we <step back to darkness>;
we return to the world of symbols and dreams in order to proclaim to it the
reality we have experienced in the holy instant:
Father, our Name is Yours. In It we are united with all living things, and
You Who are their one Creator.  (15:1-2)