Lesson 336. Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined.
Forgiveness is the means appointed for perception's ending. Knowledge is
restored after perception first is changed, and then gives way entirely to what
remains forever past its highest reach. For sights and sounds, at best, can
serve but to recall the memory that lies beyond them all. Forgiveness sweeps
away distortions, and opens the hidden altar to the truth. Its lilies shine into
the mind, and call it to return and look within, to find what it has vainly
sought without. For here, and only here, is peace of mind restored, for this the
dwelling place of God Himself.
In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of sin. Then let
me, Father, look within, and find Your promise of my sinlessness is kept; Your
Word remains unchanged within my mind, Your Love is still abiding in my heart.
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Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey
Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the
following site: ~ M. Street.
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Lesson 336. "Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined."
*In A Course in Miracles, sin and separation are virtually synonymous. Sin is
the belief that separation is real, and is deplorable because it was attained
through vicious attack. Yet if minds are joined, there can be no separation or
differences, and therefore no sin. Indeed, there is nothing but God and Christ.
Their Oneness totally unaffected by what never happened. Asking for help in
shifting our perception of the world -- the meaning of forgiveness -- allows us
to understand we are truly one: in mind and in Mind.*
(1:1-2) "Forgiveness is the means appointed for perception's ending. Knowledge
is restored after perception first is changed, and then gives way entirely to
what remains forever past its highest reach."
*We first ask for help to shift from the ego's false perception to the Holy
Spirit's true perception. When His vision has cleansed all mistaken thoughts
held in our minds, all that remains is for God to take His final step. Thus
perception ends, as the clarification of terms says, in a "blazing light," and
what takes its place is the changeless knowledge of our Self (C-4.7.)*
(1:3) "For sights and sounds, at best, can serve but to recall the memory that
lies beyond them all."
*The sights and sounds of the perceptual world can serve to help undo illusion.
In itself, perception is not true, and when the body has served its function as
an instrument of communication and classroom for learning, both disappear. The
memory of God dawns on our forgiven minds, and we are at rest.*
(1:4) "Forgiveness sweeps away distortions, and opens the hidden altar to the
truth."
*The hidden altar is within the mind, where the decision maker chooses truth
instead of illusion. Forgiveness unveils the altar so we can present the gift of
lilies to our self.*
(1:5-6) "Its lilies shine into the mind, and call it to return and look within,
to find what it has vainly sought without. For here, and only here, is peace of
mind restored, for this the dwelling place of God Himself."
*The call to return is the call for our decision maker to change its mind;
another way of saying we are asked not to look without, but to allow what our
eyes perceive to reflect what we have first chosen to see within. Only then can
we change our minds about their false perceptions, and open the door to God and
His peace.*
(2) "In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of sin. Then
let me, Father, look within, and find Your promise of my sinlessness is kept;
Your Word remains unchanged within my mind, Your Love is still abiding in my
heart."
*God's Word is the Atonement, the acceptance of which undoes the ego thought
system. We need first ask Jesus for help that we shift our perception of our
brother, which allows our projected sin to be brought back to the mind where it
originated. We then look within at the mind's wrong-minded decision for the ego,
recognize our mistaken choice and choose correctly, returning home at last to
the love in our hearts.*
