[acimlessons_list] LESSON 274 - OCTOBER 1

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 274 - OCTOBER 1

Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.

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: Pick someone whom you expect to deal with today, but
whom you'd rather avoid. Say to him or her:

I let you be as God created you.
I give you the honor due your sinlessness.
I love you like a brother and like a friend.

Commentary

Give this day to Him, and there will be no fear today, because the day is
given unto Love.	(2:2) 

Fear is what happens when we shut off our awareness to Love. It is nothing
but the illusory absence of Love-<illusory> because Love is never absent.
Nothing but Love exists. Like the physical sun, Love is always shining. We
say sometimes that <the sun isn't out today.> In fact, of course, the sun is
out, but there is interference, clouds, something in between which is
blocking our awareness of the sun. We then experience darkness, which is no
more than the absence of light. Darkness is nothing in itself. When the
interference is removed, light is there, just as it always was.

So too, when we remove the interference to our awareness of Love, Love is
there and fear is gone. If we give this day to Love, there will be no fear.

It is easy to see how we can understand any form of fear as no more than a
call for Love. <Fear is a symptom of your own deep sense of loss>
(T-12.I.9:1). Fear is how we feel when Love appears to be absent; therefore,
it is simply an automatic cry for Love's presence. It is a call for Love,
and nothing more. Fear can take many forms-anger, worry, sadness, jealousy,
sickness, or an addictive desire for a thing or for a person-but all of
these are just forms of fear. When I am aware of them in myself, let me
bring them to the Holy Spirit so that He can reinterpret them (see
T-12.I.8:8-9), so that I can understand that all forms of fear are nothing
but an unconscious call for Love (see T-12.I.8:13), and therefore they are
nothing to be guilty about.

When I was a child I believed that all sickness was caused by germs. I had a
pretty clear understanding that some kind of invader bugs got into my body
and messed things up; I could understand that. Even if metaphysically this
is not a true picture, nor even wholly true scientifically, it was what I
believed to be the truth. That was what real sickness was for me.

One day I was riding in the back seat of the car on a long drive, reading a
comic book. I started to feel sick. I guess I had never experienced motion
sickness before, so I must have been quite young. I thought I was <getting
sick,> and told my parents to stop the car because I was going to be sick. I
went into a service station restroom. As I walked in I felt less sick. I
used the toilet, and after a few minutes, I felt fine. I was utterly
baffled; what had happened to the sickness?

When I returned to the car and told my parents, they said, <Oh! You must
have been feeling carsick.> They explained to me that sometimes motion can
make you feel sick, but that it isn't the same as having the flu. I remember
clearly saying something like, <You mean I'm not really sick? I just feel
sick?> They more or less agreed with my interpretation. They told me it had
to do with the mind being confused because my eyes were looking at something
motionless while the rest of my body felt motion. In effect, they told me
the sickness was caused by false perception in my mind!

In my young mind, something clicked. I wanted to read that comic book! Even
though my parents advised against it, I went back to reading it. I started
to feel sick again. But I now knew the truth that I wasn't really sick! This
was a false sickness. There was no real reason (i.e., germs) to be sick. My
mind was doing it to me, so my mind could undo it. So, despite the nausea
and pain in my stomach, I went on reading. <I'm not really sick,> I told
myself. And the nausea went away, and I never had motion sickness again in
my life, except one time on an ocean liner in a very heavy storm, after all
eleven hundred people on the ship had thrown up except for me and another
dozen or so-I guess the <evidence> was just too overwhelming.

Just as that day I convinced myself that my sickness was not real-a very
clear lesson in my life of the power of the mind-the Holy Spirit wants to
convince us that our fears are not real. Just as I realized that day that
nothing was truly wrong with my body, He wants us to know that when we are
feeling fear, nothing is really wrong with our minds. Despite what we
perceive in the world, the Holy Spirit wants us to know that the fear is
being manufactured by our own minds; it is not real, because Love is never
absent and therefore there is no real reason for fear. You may feel fear in
one of its many forms-He never asks us to deny that, instead He asks us to
look at it and recognize it very clearly-but He does ask us to realize that
what we are feeling is false. It has no cause. It is just something
manufactured by a mind that has blinded itself to the truth. We don't even
need to cure our fear, because the sickness isn't real!

We will either love our brothers or fear them; those are the only two
emotions in this world, according to the Course (see T-12.I.9:5). To give
the day to Love means, then, that we will not react with fear to our
brothers. We will <let all things be as You created them> (1:1), and
therefore we will honor our brothers in their sinlessness. We will give each
of them, as the Son of God, <the love of brother to his brother and his
Friend> (1:1).
The path of the Course lies here, in learning to let go of our fears and to
respond to one another with love instead, honoring what we all are in truth,
instead of fearing what our brothers or sisters appear to be. This is how we
are redeemed (1:2); this is how light replaces all the darkness in the world
(1:3).

Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 4: W-pII.6.2:4,5

The Christ is the part of our mind in which God's Answer lies (2:3). This
part of our mind <remains untouched by anything the body's eyes perceive>
(2:4). Our mind, as we are aware of it, is more than merely touched by what
our eyes perceive; it is dominated by it, controlled by it, and tossed about
like a leaf in the wind (as advertisers well know!). But there is something
in us, somewhere in us, according to this statement, that is untouched and
unmoved by our physical perceptions. It remains perfectly calm no matter
what seems to be happening around us. It remains perfectly loving, no matter
what assault is made upon our love. This is the Christ, our true Self.

It is this part of ourselves we are practicing to become aware of. This is
the quiet center of our being that we are seeking to connect with in the
holy instants we spend, quietly listening. This is the Voice that we attempt
to hear, a Voice of majestic stillness and complete tranquility. The Christ
is not some alien being, something apart from us that we must learn,
somehow, to emulate. He is our Self. He is like the eye of the hurricane.
When our minds are agitated and seemingly out of control, we can, if we are
willing to leave the objects of our turmoil behind, enter that eye of the
storm and find the peace within ourselves that is always, always there. The
moment we do, the change is so startling it is unmistakable. The howling of
the wind ceases. The blast of the elements suddenly stops. There is nothing
but peace. In this still center of our being, all of the events of our lives
that have driven us to and fro, helpless in their grip, have absolutely no
effect whatsoever. And in that moment we know, <This is Who I am.>

Because of our confusion of mind, because we have made a seeming problem
where there is none, the Father has placed in Christ the <means for your
salvation> (2:5), the Answer to our illusions. And yet this Christ remains
untouched by the <problems> themselves, pristinely pure; He <knows no sin>
(2:5). The Answer to sin is incorporated within Him, and yet in Him the
problem being answered does not even exist. Christ's perfection has not been
sullied by our madness. He is still as perfect as the day he was created.
And He is me. <I am the holy Son of God Himself> (W-pI.191.Heading). Here,
in the stillness of Christ's being, I know that all my <sins> are nothing,
and without effect of any kind. Here I am more than guiltless; I am holy.
All things are holy. And nothing unreal exists.