Lesson 120. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 120. For morning and evening review:
1. (109) I rest in God.
I rest in God today,
and let Him work in me and through me,
while I rest in Him in quiet and in perfect certainty.
2.(110) I am as God created me.
I am God's Son.
Today I lay aside all sick illusions of myself,
and let my Father tell me Who I really am.
On the hour:
I rest in God.
On the half hour:
I am as God created me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below, is but an excerpt on this lesson's commentary, from Kenneth
Wapnick's book set, entitled: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in
Miracles," which can be purchased and then read in full, (well worth it) from:
. org/bookstore/ default.aspx . ~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Our review ends with the happy thought that despite "all sick illusions
of myself" and the world, I have never ceased to rest in God. His Voice
becomes the only voice I hear, and Its Love guides me gently through the
day. I remain at rest, "in quiet and in perfect certainty," for I
remember I am as God created me, and nothing in the world can change the
changeless in my mind.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 119. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 119. For morning and evening review:
1.(107) Truth will correct all errors in my mind.
I am mistaken when I think I can be hurt in any way.
I am God's Son, whose Self rests safely in the Mind of God.
2. (108) To give and to receive are one in truth.
I will forgive all things today,
that I may learn how to accept the truth in me,
and come to recognize my sinlessness.
On the hour:
Truth will correct all errors in my mind.
On the half hour:
To give and to receive are one in truth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Over and over Jesus reminds us that through our forgiveness -- of others and
ourselves -- we will awaken from the nightmarish dreams of sin and guilt to the
glorious truth of our Self: God's Son who rests safely in the Mind of His
Creator.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 118. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 118. For morning and evening review:
1.(105) God's peace and joy are mine.
Today I will accept God's peace and joy,
in glad exchange for all the substitutes
that I have made for happiness and peace.
2.(106) Let me be still and listen to the truth.
Let my own feeble voice be still, and let
me hear the mighty Voice for Truth Itself
assure me that I am God's perfect Son.
On the hour:
God's peace and joy are mine.
On the half hour:
Let me be still and listen to the truth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*I happily accept God's peace and joy to the extent I set aside my feeble voice
that speaks only of separation, specialness, and death. Now I hear the mighty
Voice for Truth remind me that I <am> God's Son, perfect as He is perfect, and
in that remembrance I am at peace at last.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 117. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 117. For morning and evening review:
1.(103) God, being Love, is also happiness.
Let me remember love is happiness,
and nothing else brings joy.
And so I choose to entertain no substitutes for love.
2.(104) I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
Love is my heritage, and with it joy.
These are the gifts my Father gave to me.
I would accept all that is mine in truth.
On the hour:
God, being Love, is also happiness.
On the half hour:
I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Since the Love of God is all there is, why would I seek for anything else? To
do so condemns me to a life of frustration, depression, and pain. I choose
instead the joy that attends acceptance of the love that alone is mine, the
heritage our loving Father has given us.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 116. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 116. For morning and evening review:1.(101) God's Will for me is perfect happiness.God's Will is perfect happiness for me.And I can suffer but from the beliefthere is another will apart from His.2.(102) I share God's Will for happiness for me.I share my Father's Will for me, His Son.What He has given me is all I want.What He has given me is all there is.On the hour:God's Will for me is perfect happiness.On the half hour:I share God's Will for happiness for me.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Below, is but an excerpt on this lesson's commentary, from Kenneth Wapnick'sbook set, entitled: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"which can be purchased and then read in full, (well worth it) from:?. ~ M. Street.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*The theme of happiness returns, and we remember that the statement that God'sWill for us is perfect happiness corrects the ego's teaching that God's Will isthat we suffer as atonement for our sins. Forgiveness reflects our acceptance ofHis Love as all we want and all we are. There <is> nothing else.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 115. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 115. For morning and evening review:
1.(99) Salvation is my only function here.
My function here is to forgive the world
for all the errors I have made.
For thus am I released from them with all the world.
2. (100) My part is essential to God's plan for salvation.
I am essential to the plan of God
for the salvation of the world.
For He gave me His plan that I might save the world.
On the hour:
Salvation is my only function here.
On the half hour:
My part is essential to God's plan for salvation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below, is but an excerpt on this lesson's commentary, from Kenneth Wapnick's
book set, entitled: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"
which can be purchased and then read in full, (well worth it) from:
?. ~ M. Street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*When we choose to forgive, we choose for ourselves and all the world, for they
are one. Thus each of us is essential to the plan, for each of us contains the
Whole.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 114. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 114. For morning and evening review:
1.(97) I am spirit. I am the Son of God.
No body can contain my spirit,
nor impose on me a limitation God created not.
2.(98) I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.
What can my function be but to accept the Word of God,
Who has created me for what I am and will forever be?
On the hour:
I am spirit.
On the half hour:
I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below, is but an excerpt on this lesson's commentary, from Kenneth Wapnick's
book set, entitled: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"
which can be purchased and then read in full, (well worth it) from:
?. ~ M. Street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*We are thus reminded of Who we are as spirit. This remembrance comes when we
accept our function of forgiveness. It is not so much the words of the lessons
that are important, but the willingness to think of them throughout the day. It
is the thought in our minds that grants importance to the words -- reflecting
the Word of God -- and that is the essence of these reviews.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 113. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 113. For morning and evening review:
1.(95) I am one Self, united with my Creator.
Serenity and perfect peace are mine,
because I am one Self, completely whole,
at one with all creation and with God.
2.(96) Salvation comes from my one Self.
From my one Self,
Whose knowledge still remains within my mind,
I see God's perfect plan for my salvation perfectly fulfilled
On the hour:
I am one Self, united with my Creator.
On the half hour:
Salvation comes from my one Self.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Experiencing the serenity and perfect peace that come from forgiveness.
I remember that "I am one Self, united with my Creator and His
creation." Thus is the plan of the Atonement completed, and I along with
you, my brother in Christ
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 112. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 112. For morning and evening review:
1.(93) Light and joy and peace abide in me.
I am the home of light and joy and peace.
I welcome them into the home I share with God,
because I am a part of Him.
2.(94) I am as God created me.
I will remain forever as I was,
created by the Changeless like Himself.
And I am one with Him, and He with me.
On the hour:
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
On the half hour:
I am as God created me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*The oneness of our Self is a highly important theme in the early lessons, and
in these reviews as well. If I am truly God's Son, any belief you are separate
from me denies that truth. Therefore my special thoughts of neediness and
judgment deny we are part of God's one Self. We first recognize the unchanging
light, joy, and peace that shine in everyone, and then awaken from this happy
dream as the Self abiding in the Changeless.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 111. For morning and evening review:
Lesson 111. For morning and evening review:
1.(91) Miracles are seen in light.
I cannot see in darkness.
Let the light of holiness and truth light up my mind,
and let me see the innocence within.
2.(92) Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
I see through strength, the gift of God to me.
My weakness is the dark His gift dispels,
by giving me His strength to take its place.
On the hour:
Miracles are seen in light.
On the half hour:
Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Each of these ten lessons, consisting of two of the previous twenty --
Lessons 91 through 110 -- summarizes the important themes we have
considered in our previous discussion. We shall go through them
relatively quickly.*
*We cannot truly see when we are embedded in the ego's thought system of
shadows, but we do see when we turn to the truth. Such vision reflects
the strength of Christ in us that awaits our decision to set aside the
ego's weakness.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Review III - Introduction
Review III - Introduction
(1) Our next review begins today. We will review two recent lessons
every day for ten successive days of practicing. We will observe a
special format for these practice periods, that you are urged to follow
just as closely as you can.
(2) We understand, of course, that it may be impossible for you to
undertake what is suggested here as optimal each day and every hour of
the day. Learning will not be hampered when you miss a practice period
because it is impossible at the appointed time. Nor is it necessary that
you make excessive efforts to be sure that you catch up in terms of
numbers. Rituals are not our aim, and would defeat our goal.
(3) But learning will be hampered when you skip a practice period
because you are unwilling to devote the time to it that you are asked to
give. Do not deceive yourself in this. Unwillingness can be most
carefully concealed behind a cloak of situations you cannot control.
Learn to distinguish situations that are poorly suited to your
practicing from those that you establish to uphold a camouflage for your
unwillingness.
(4) Those practice periods that you have lost because you did not want
to do them, for whatever reason, should be done as soon as you have
changed your mind about your goal. You are unwilling to cooperate in
practicing salvation only if it interferes with goals you hold more
dear. When you withdraw the value given them, allow your practice
periods to be replacements for your litanies to them. They gave you
nothing. But your practicing can offer everything to you. And so accept
their offering and be at peace.
(5) The format you should use for these reviews is this: Devote five
minutes twice a day, or longer if you would prefer it, to considering
the thoughts that are assigned. Read over the ideas and comments that
are written down for each day's exercise. And then begin to think about
them, while letting your mind relate them to your needs, your seeming
problems and all your concerns.
(6) Place the ideas within your mind, and let it use them as it chooses.
Give it faith that it will use them wisely, being helped in its
decisions by the One Who gave the thoughts to you. What can you trust
but what is in your mind? Have faith, in these reviews, the means the
Holy Spirit uses will not fail. The wisdom of your mind will come to
your assistance. Give direction at the outset; then lean back in quiet
faith, and let the mind employ the thoughts you gave as they were given
you for it to use.
(7) You have been given them in perfect trust; in perfect confidence
that you would use them well; in perfect faith that you would see their
messages and use them for yourself. Offer them to your mind in that same
trust and confidence and faith. It will not fail. It is the Holy
Spirit's chosen means for your salvation. Since it has His trust, His
means must surely merit yours as well.
(8) We emphasize the benefits to you if you devote the first five
minutes of the day to your reviews, and also give the last five minutes
of your waking day to them. If this cannot be done, at least try to
divide them so you undertake one in the morning, and the other in the
hour just before you go to sleep.
(9) The exercises to be done throughout the day are equally important,
and perhaps of even greater value. You have been inclined to practice
only at appointed times, and then go on your way to other things,
without applying what you learned to them. As a result, you have gained
little reinforcement, and have not given your learning a fair chance to
prove how great are its potential gifts to you. Here is another chance
to use it well.
(10) In these reviews, we stress the need to let your learning not lie
idly by between your longer practice periods. Attempt to give your daily
two ideas a brief but serious review each hour. Use one on the hour, and
the other one a half an hour later. You need not give more than just a
moment to each one. Repeat it, and allow your mind to rest a little time
in silence and in peace. Then turn to other things, but try to keep the
thought with you, and let it serve to help you keep your peace
throughout the day as well.
(11) If you are shaken, think of it again. These practice periods are
planned to help you form the habit of applying what you learn each day
to everything you do. Do not repeat the thought and lay it down. Its
usefulness is limitless to you. And it is meant to serve you in all
ways, all times and places, and whenever you need help of any kind. Try,
then, to take it with you in the business of the day and make it holy,
worthy of God's Son, acceptable to God and to your Self.
(12) Each day's review assignments will conclude with a restatement of
the thought to use each hour, and the one to be applied on each half
hour as well. Forget them not. This second chance with each of these
ideas will bring such large advances that we come from these reviews
with learning gains so great we will continue on more solid ground, with
firmer footsteps and with stronger faith.
(13)<Do not forget how little you have learned.
Do not forget how much you can learn now.
Do not forget your Father's need of you,
As you review these thoughts He gave to you.>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Review III - Introduction. With commentary by Kenneth Wapnick.
*The introduction to the reviews provide important messages, as we have
seen, and this one is no exception. Its basic theme is our vigilance in
doing these reviews. Even more importantly -- a point emphasized in
almost every lesson -- these exercises will have no relevance if we do
not practice them. The importance this concept holds for Jesus will be
evident as we go through the Introduction. He wants us to apply these
thoughts throughout the day, especially when we find ourselves upset,
which should be rather frequent if we are truly vigilant. It is thus
essential to practice the thoughts set forth here. The idea that the
world is an illusion, for example, is meaningless if we do not realize
that if this is so, there is nothing outside us with the power to take
God's peace from our minds. These, then, are ideas Jesus asks us to
apply throughout the day, and our practice is the burden of this
Introduction.*
(1) "Our next review begins today. We will review two recent lessons
every day for ten successive days of practicing. We will observe a
special format for these practice periods, that you are urged to follow
just as closely as you can."
*Jesus is not a harsh judge, sitting in Heaven with a scorecard keeping
track of how many times we forget a practice period. Yet he does appeal
to the decision-making part of our minds that would be tempted to choose
the ego instead of the Holy Spirit, specialness and individuality
instead of learning the lessons that would undo them and return us home.
He urges us not because there is anything sacrosanct about these review
periods, but for our well-being. He reminds us in statements like this
that doing things our way brings pain, while having him guide us brings
release from pain. We therefore will feel better if we acknowledge we
are wrong and he is right, and indeed that he has always been right.*
(2:1-2) "We understand, of course, that it may be impossible for you to
undertake what is suggested here as optimal each day and every hour of
the day. Learning will not be hampered when you miss a practice period
because it is impossible at the appointed time."
*Jesus is not naive, nor harshly demanding. There certainly may be times
throughout the day when at the hour's stroke it is impossible to spend
to spend a few minutes thinking of the lesson. If there is a fire, a
drowning person, an automobile accident or any urgent matter, you are
going to pay attention to what is happening, and not necessarily take
five minutes to sit with closed eyes and think of the lesson. Again
Jesus is not harsh, but he is saying -- as we will see in just a moment
-- to be careful in distinguishing between what is reasonable and what
is not, in terms of missing a practice period. The "unreasonable" is
choosing to forget out of fear.
The point is to respond to the gentleness with which Jesus acts as our
teacher. This is not a punitive assignment, for he asks only that we be
mindful of our fear thoughts when we find these lessons too threatening
for our specialness. This fear often leads to forgetting them at the
appointed time. Recall, too, our discussion in Lesson 95. Our success in
these lessons does not lie in having a <perfect> record in remembering,
but in being <perfectly> mindful of our temptation to feel guilty. We
shall return to this thought presently.*
(3:1-3) "But learning will be hampered when you skip a practice period
because you are unwilling to devote the time to it that you are asked to
give. Do not deceive yourself in this. Unwillingness can be most
carefully concealed behind a cloak of situations you cannot control."
*Jesus distinguishes between those situations that are really beyond our
control and those that are not. He asks that we be vigilant for our
resistance to learning A Course in Miracles and practicing these
exercises. Again, he is not being punitive or harsh, nor keeping track
of our practice schedule. Helping us to implement what he teaches in the
text, Jesus is simply re-training our minds to think with him, than the
ego.
As I have said, our success with the workbook comes not by practicing
its exercises exactly as they are written, but by learning to forgive
ourselves when we forget. This forgetting is a shadowy fragment of the
original thought when we chose to forget God. As all time has occurred,
and is ongoing within one instant, we re-live this unholy instant when
we chose to forget God's Love and Oneness, substituting instead our
separated and special existence:
"Each day, each hour and minute, even each second, you are deciding
between the crucifixion and the resurrection; between the ego and the
Holy Spirit. The ego is the choice for guilt; the Holy Spirit the choice
for guiltlessness. The power of decision is all that is yours. ...You
are guilty or guiltless, bound or free, unhappy or happy."
(T.14.III.4.1-3,6)
We become aware of our original mistake by observing its re-enactment
today, this very minute of choosing attack over forgiveness, guilt over
guiltlessness.
You therefore need to see how quickly you forget the day's lesson,
understanding that this forgetting is not because you are an amnesiac,
have Alzheimer's, or are so extraordinarily busy and important. Most of
the time, if not all of it, you forget because you want to. Remember,
this is a course in motivation. You want to forget because to remember
God means forgetting the ego. Jesus asks you not to feel guilty when you
forget, but that you be honest when you do, telling yourself you forgot
because you were afraid. Period. Even in an emergency, the chances are
that even as you attended to what was needed, you could have managed a
few seconds to hold the thought of looking at the situation. Jesus thus
asks you to make the distinction between what is reasonably objective in
terms of your schedule, and what is not:*
(4:1) "Those practice periods that you have lost because you did not
want to do them, for whatever reason, should be done as soon as you have
changed your mind about your goal."
*Jesus pleads with us to be mindful of our sneakiness. The serpent --
i.e.,the devil -- has been referred to as the most subtle of beasts, and
the ego, the source of the projected devil, is the archetype of
subtlety. It is important to catch the clever subterfuges we employ in
trying to escape from the "terrible burden" of peace A Course in
Miracles "threateningly" holds out to us.*
(5) "The format you should use for these reviews is this: Devote five
minutes twice a day, or longer if you would prefer it, to considering
the thoughts that are assigned. Read over the ideas and comments that
are written down for each day's exercise. And then begin to think about
them, while letting your mind relate them to your needs, your seeming
problems and all your concerns."
*This final sentence is the central theme of the introduction,
articulated throughout: The lessons represent the truth to which we
bring our needs, concerns, and problems; and whatever time we give to
practice will suffice, it is time we truly want to spend.*
(8) "We emphasize the benefits to you if you devote the first five
minutes of the day to your reviews, and also give the last five minutes
of your waking day to them. If this cannot be done, at least try to
divide them so you undertake one in the morning, and the other in the
hour just before you go to sleep."
*Jesus lets us know we may not be able to do this as strictly as he sets
it forth here, and that it is all right if we cannot. I recall some
twenty-five years ago meeting a spiritual eager beaver who decided after
receiving A Course in Miracles that he should leave his profession and
family, and retire to a remote location. Only there, he reasoned, could
he practice and study the Course without being encumbered by the daily
demands of his life at home and office. He unfortunately missed the
point. A Course in Miracles is not meant to be done in a desert,
mountain top, or anywhere else you would <exclude> yourself from the
world. It is generally meant to be done as part of your normal day. What
this was before you started the Course should be the same as now, for
that is where you need reminding that worldly distractions have no hold
on you unless your mind chooses to have them do so. Thus we read Jesus'
words addressing the issue of external changes:
"Changes are required in the minds of God's teachers. ... It is most
unlikely that changes in attitudes would not be the first step in the
newly-made teacher of God's training. ...There are those who are called
upon to change their life situation almost immediately, but these are
generally special cases. By far the majority are given a slowly-evolving
training program, in which as many previous mistakes as possible are
corrected."
(M-9.1:1,4,6-7).
If things of the world distract you from God or Jesus, it is not because
of the world, but because you do not want to be reminded of Them or
Their peace. The workbook's mind-training program, again, allows you to
get in touch with the resistance that seeks always to protect the ego's
thought system of separation. It is helpful to see how quickly you may
try to blame external circumstances for what is your own mind's mistaken
choice.*
(9:1-2) "The exercises to be done throughout the day are equally
important, and perhaps of even greater value. You have been inclined to
practice only at appointed times, and then go on your way to other
things, without applying what you learned to them."
*This is where Jesus tells you: "I understand what you are doing. Do not
judge yourself, and for your own sake stop excluding me and my message
because it will not make you happy to continue to do so." You do not
have to pretend you are an outstanding student of A Course in Miracles
because you do the lessons faithfully. Being faithful does not mean
meeting the half-hour or hourly obligation, but applying the daily
thought whenever you are tempted to be upset. If you are being vigilant,
you would see yourself upset almost every minute, for there is always
something you believe is intruding on your peace. When you fail to apply
the thought to your upset, you learn to forgive yourself for once again
choosing the ego over the Love of God. This constitutes the faithful
application of the lessons and the meaning of forgiveness.*
(10:1-5) "In these reviews, we stress the need to let your learning not
lie idly by between your longer practice periods. Attempt to give your
daily two ideas a brief but serious review each hour. Use one on the
hour, and the other one a half an hour later. You need not give more
than just a moment to each one. Repeat it, and allow your mind to rest a
little time in silence and in peace."
*It should be obvious by now how much Jesus wants us to apply these
ideas -- day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Only such diligence
and attention will the mind-training purpose for these exercises be
achieved.*
(11) "If you are shaken, think of it again. These practice periods are
planned to help you form the habit of applying what you learn each day
to everything you do. Do not repeat the thought and lay it down. Its
usefulness is limitless to you. And it is meant to serve you in all
ways, all times and places, and whenever you need help of any kind. Try,
then, to take it with you in the business of the day and make it holy,
worthy of God's Son, acceptable to God and to your Self."
*This is an important paragraph. The language is simple, but Jesus tells
us in no uncertain terms how essential these lessons are, as long as we
practice and apply them. He told us earlier that the workbook is a
one-year training program. The hope is that at the year's end we would
have understood the importance of remembering thoughts from A Course in
Miracles throughout the day, using them as symbols of the truth to which
we bring the illusions of our upsets.
To reiterate, understanding the metaphysics of A Course in Miracles
means nothing if we still find ourselves guilty, angry, depressed, and
isolated. The metaphysic's importance lies solely in helping us realize
that the world is indeed illusory, and that we made everything,
including our upset, to keep specialness intact and the Love of God
away. Therefore, we have to practice over and over the return to the
decision-making part of our minds, where we had chosen against Jesus'
truth by choosing the ego's illusion. Only then can we correct our
choice for fear.*
(12) "Each day's review assignments will conclude with a restatement of
the thought to use each hour, and the one to be applied on each half
hour as well. Forget them not. This second chance with each of these
ideas will bring such large advances that we come from these reviews
with learning gains so great we will continue on more solid ground, with
firmer footsteps and with stronger faith."
*Jesus' final plea, then, is for us to use these lessons and not forget
them, and when we do forget, to forgive ourselves. He closes with this
quatrain:*
(13:1-2) "Do not forget how little you have learned.
Do not forget how much you can learn now."
*Our learning has nothing to do with the intellectual mastery of a
thought system. As students of A Course in Miracles, we must certainly
understand the text's teaching. However, understanding without
application is meaningless -- thus a text <and> a workbook. Practicing
the lessons -- being vigilant for our resistance to the truth -- will
help us a great deal. Note, too, the appeal to our humility by being
reminded how little we have learned. Recognizing we still have much to
learn leaves us open to learning it, reminiscent of a somewhat similar
statement in the fourth stage of the development of trust in the manual
for teachers: "He [the teacher of God] has not yet come as far as he
thinks" (M-4.4.1-A.6:10); there yet remains stages five and six.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 110. I am as God created me.
Lesson 110. I am as God created me.
(1) We will repeat today's idea from time to time. For this one thought
would be enough to save you and the world, if you believed that it is
true. Its truth would mean that you have made no changes in yourself
that have reality, nor changed the universe so that what God created was
replaced by fear and evil, misery and death. If you remain as God
created you fear has no meaning, evil is not real, and misery and death
do not exist.
(2) Today's idea is therefore all you need to let complete correction
heal your mind, and give you perfect vision that will heal all the
mistakes that any mind has made at any time or place. It is enough to
heal the past and make the future free. It is enough to let the present
be accepted as it is. It is enough to let time be the means for all the
world to learn escape from time, and every change that time appears to
bring in passing by.
(3) If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the
truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be substitute for
life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God
created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption
come to light the world and free it from the past.
(4) In this one thought is all the past undone; the present saved to
quietly extend into a timeless future. If you are as God created you,
then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split
between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own.
(5) The healing power of today's idea is limitless. It is the birthplace
of all miracles, the great restorer of the truth to the awareness of the
world.
Practice today's idea with gratitude. This is the truth that comes to
set you free. This is the truth that God has promised you. This is the
Word in which all sorrow ends.
(6) For your five-minute practice periods, begin with this quotation
from the text:
<I am as God created me.
His Son can suffer nothing.
And I am His Son.>
(7) Then, with this statement firmly in your mind, try to discover in
your mind the Self Who is the holy Son of God Himself.
(8) Seek Him within you Who is Christ in you, the Son of God and brother
to the world; the Savior Who has been forever saved, with power to save
whoever touches Him, however lightly, asking for the Word that tells him
he is brother unto Him.
(9) You are as God created you. Today honor your Self. Let graven images
you made to be the Son of God instead of what he is be worshipped not
today. Deep in your mind the holy Christ in you is waiting your
acknowledgment as you. And you are lost and do not know yourself while
He is unacknowledged and unknown.
(10) Seek Him today, and find Him. He will be your Savior from all idols
you have made. For when you find Him, you will understand how worthless
are your idols, and how false the images which you believed were you.
Today we make a great advance to truth by letting idols go, and opening
our hands and hearts and minds to God today.
(11) We will remember Him throughout the day with thankful hearts and
loving thoughts for all who meet with us today. For it is thus that we
remember Him. And we will say, that we may be reminded of His Son, our
holy Self, the Christ in each of us:
<I am as God created me.>
Let us declare this truth as often as we can. This is the Word of God
that sets you free. This is the key that opens up the gate of Heaven,
and that lets you enter in the peace of God and His eternity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 110. I am as God created me.
*This statement first appeared in Lesson 94, and will appear again in
Lesson 162, and finally in a review lesson that we study for twenty
days. Thus Jesus ends this twenty-lesson series, the purpose of which
was to remind us of the shabbiness of our little self in comparison with
the glory of our true Self that God created one with Him.*
(1:1-3) "We will repeat today's idea from time to time. For this one
thought would be enough to save you and the world, if you believed that
it is true. Its truth would mean that you have made no changes in
yourself that have reality, nor changed the universe so that what God
created was replaced by fear and evil, misery and death."
*The problem is that we believed we changed reality, and our individual
existence is the seeming witness to that change. This is the source of
our guilt, which has to be protected by projecting out a fearful and
evil world in which we say: "Other people did this to me: I am
innocent." To this insanity the Atonement softly whispers: "And God
thinks otherwise" (T-23.1.2:7). God's "thinking" is simply this: My Son
is my Son, and nothing can change this Fact.*
(2:1) "Today's idea is therefore all you need to let complete correction
heal your mind, and give you perfect vision that will heal all the
mistakes that any mind has made at any time or place."
*This is so because, again, one mind is all minds. Remember, time and
space have never left the mind's single thought of separation, undone by
the Atonement's timeless Thought that reflects the oneness of eternity.*
(3) "If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the
truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be substitute for
life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God
created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption
come to light the world and free it from the past."
*This marks the end of the ego thought system. Acceptance of the Word of
God reverses our mad course into insanity (T-18.1.8:5), thus undoing its
effects. The impossible did not occur because the impossible could not
occur. To make the point again, you do not "light the world" externally,
for there is no world to illuminate; no world to free, heal, or
enlighten. You enlighten your <mind>, and in that experience the world
is healed and undone, and with it all suffering. The light of the
Atonement has shined away the darkness of fear, sickness, and death.*
(4) "In this one thought is all the past undone; the present saved to
quietly extend into a timeless future. If you are as God created you,
then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split
between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own."
*This succinctly summarizes our previous discussion. Choosing against
the ego thought system, of sin, guilt, and fear means choosing for the
holy instant, in which time is undone, separation, too, releasing the
oneness of Christ.*
(5:1-2) "The healing power of today's idea is limitless. It is the
birthplace of all miracles, the great restorer of the truth to the
awareness of the world."
*Miracles undo the ego's thought system, and these corrections have
their birthplace in the Atonement principle that says to our sleeping
minds: "You have not lost your Identity, and nothing your dream has made
real affected truth. Throughout it all, you remain as God created you."
*
(6-7) "For your five-minute practice periods, begin with this quotation
from the text:
<I am as God created me.
His Son can suffer nothing.
And I am His Son.>
Then, with this statement firmly in your mind, try to discover in your
mind the Self Who is the holy Son of God Himself."
*This lesson and series close with the return of the theme that our true
Self is Christ, God's one Son. His memory is not lost to us, but was
buried under layers of illusion born of our fear of the truth. We have
seen the errors of our ways and the suffering they brought us. Thus we
change our minds as we change our perceptions, and remember that we are
as God created us -- the Holy Son of God Himself.*
(8) "Seek Him within you Who is Christ in you, the Son of God and
brother to the world; the Savior Who has been forever saved, with power
to save whoever touches Him, however lightly, asking for the Word that
tells him he is brother unto Him."
*By <seeking> reality, we are assured we will <find>it. We are healed as
we accept salvation, as are all who make the choice we have made.
Indeed, we are already healed, but must yet accept the truth by
rejecting the false. If it is truly Christ we seek in ourselves and our
brothers, it will be the Word of God to which we listen, for that alone
corrects our false self-concepts. Without it we condemn ourselves to
listen to the ego's uncorrected word of separation and self.*
(9:1-2) "You are as God created you. Today honor your Self."
*We honor our Self, not by telling ourselves how wonderful we are, but
by saying no to the ego's self, as we read:*
(9:4 --10:1) "Deep in your mind the holy Christ in you is waiting your
acknowledgment as you. And you are lost and do not know yourself while
He is unacknowledged and unknown."
"Seek Him today, and find Him."
*The problem is that we do not want to seek Him, because we do not want
to find Him. We seek instead to retain this shabby image of Christ's
Self. The purpose of these exercises -- indeed, the purpose of A Course
in Miracles -- is to teach us how lost we are when separated from our
Self. Through letting go of grievances -- against others or ourselves --
we acknowledge our Identity. The memory of Christ dawns on our forgiven
minds and we are found:
"Together we will disappear into the Presence beyond the veil, not to be
lost but found; not to be seen but known. And knowing, nothing in the
plan God has established for salvation will be left
undone."(T-19.IV-D.19:1-2).*
(11:1) "We will remember Him throughout the day with thankful hearts and
loving thoughts for all who meet with us today."
*Before we greet someone with a grateful heart and thankful words, we
first must realize how ungrateful we are. Remember, we find truth by
undoing illusions, so these thoughts should not be used mantras or
affirmations to cover over our specialness. These statements are truth's
reflection, to which we bring our shadowy illusions. We thus need to be
aware of our ego's perceptions, and then go to the truth in our minds
for help.*
(11:7) "This is the key that opens up the gate of Heaven, and that lets
you enter in the peace of God and His eternity."
*The mind locked by guilt and grievances, forgiveness gently opens.
Learning to trust the Voice that speaks the Word of God -- the Atonement
that sets us free -- we reach for Jesus' hand that has never ceased
reaching for ours. When we choose to take our brothers hands along with
his, the door quietly opens and we are home, where God would have us be
(T-31.VIII.12:8). We return now to the clarification of terms and read
its inspiring final words, and thus close the lesson and series with
another beautiful expression of the beautiful truth.
"Let us go out and meet the newborn world, knowing that Christ has been
reborn in it, and that the holiness of this rebirth will last forever.
We had lost our way but He has found it for us. Let us go and bid Him
welcome Who returns to us to celebrate salvation and the end of all we
thought we made. The morning star of this new day looks on a different
world where God is welcomed and His Son with Him. We who complete Him
offer thanks to Him, as He gives thanks to us. The Son is still, and in
the quiet God has given him enters his home and is at peace at last."
(C.ep.5.)*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 109. I rest in God.
Lesson 109. I rest in God.
(1) We ask for rest today, and quietness unshaken by the world's
appearances. We ask for peace and stillness, in the midst of all the
turmoil born of clashing dreams. We ask for safety and for happiness,
although we seem to look on danger and on sorrow. And we have the
thought that will answer our asking with what we request.
(2) "I rest in God." This thought will bring to you the rest and quiet,
peace and stillness, and the safety and the happiness you seek. "I rest
in God." This thought has power to wake the sleeping truth in you, whose
vision sees beyond appearances to that same truth in everyone and
everything there is. Here is the end of suffering for all the world, and
everyone who ever came and yet will come to linger for a while. Here is
the thought in which the Son of God is born again, to recognize himself.
(3) "I rest in God." Completely undismayed, this thought will carry you
through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death,
and onward to the certainty of God. There is no suffering it cannot
heal. There is no problem that it cannot solve. And no appearance but
will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest in God.
(4) This is the day of peace. You rest in God, and while the world is
torn by winds of hate your rest remains completely undisturbed. Yours is
the rest of truth. Appearances cannot intrude on you. You call to all to
join you in your rest, and they will hear and come to you because you
rest in God. They will not hear another voice than yours because you
gave your voice to God, and now you rest in Him and let Him speak
through you.
(5) In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no
pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. In timelessness you rest,
while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your rest can never
change in any way at all. You rest today. And as you close your eyes,
sink into stillness. Let these periods of rest and respite reassure your
mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that
has passed away. Let it be still and thankfully accept its healing. No
more fearful dreams will come, now that you rest in God. Take time today
to slip away from dreams and into peace.
(6) Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly
made glad, a bird with broken wings begins to sing, a stream long dry
begins to flow again. The world is born again each time you rest, and
hourly remember that you came to bring the peace of God into the world,
that it might take its rest along with you.
(7) With each five minutes that you rest today, the world is nearer
waking. And the time when rest will be the only thing there is comes
closer to all worn and tired minds, too weary now to go their way alone.
And they will hear the bird begin to sing and see the stream begin to
flow again, with hope reborn and energy restored to walk with lightened
steps along the road that suddenly seems easy as they go.
(8) You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your brothers
from your rest to draw them to their rest, along with you. You will be
faithful to your trust today, forgetting no one, bringing everyone into
the boundless circle of your peace, the holy sanctuary where you rest.
Open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and
near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them
all enter here and rest with you.
(9) You rest within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. Each
brother comes to take his rest, and offer it to you. We rest together
here, for thus our rest is made complete, and what we give today we have
received already. Time is not the guardian of what we give today. We
give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and
to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And
we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, "I
rest in God."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 109. "I rest in God."
*This lesson is a particularly beautiful one, and should be read as a
meditation. I hope not to ruin it by my comments. Note that when Jesus
speaks of resting in God, it is in contrast to the disquiet and dis-ease
of the world. Thus we see again his emphasis on contrasting truth and
illusion: His rest of true quiet, and the ego's of murder -- I am quiet
and peaceful <because> I got what I wanted; I won and you lost, and so I
rest in triumph. Note, too, how the phrase "I rest in God" recurs almost
as a musical motif.*
(1) "We ask for rest today, and quietness unshaken by the world's
appearances. We ask for peace and stillness, in the midst of all the
turmoil born of clashing dreams. We ask for safety and for happiness,
although we seem to look on danger and on sorrow. And we have the
thought that will answer our asking with what we request."
*Jesus is not saying we should disappear on a mountaintop and rest in
God. He asks us to practice this lesson in the midst of our daily world
of turmoil, clashing dreams, danger and sorrow. The goal is to go
through our lives, filled with <sturm und drang>, and still be peaceful.
To be sure, problems are always with us for they are the projections of
guilt, which is also always with us. By choosing forgiveness, however,
the problem in the mind disappears, as do the problems perceived in the
world. What remains is the peace and stillness that come from rest,
which is the happy effect of releasing our hold on guilt.*
(2:1-4) "I rest in God." This thought will bring to you the rest and
quiet, peace and stillness, and the safety and the happiness you seek.
"I rest in God." This thought has power to wake the sleeping truth in
you, whose vision sees beyond appearances to that same truth in everyone
and everything there is."
*We begin with appearances; namely, you and I are different, with
different goals. Asking Jesus for help leads us past appearances to the
truth, as his vision of shared interests replace our judgments. Thus do
our eyes open and we awaken from the dream of separation.*
(3) "I rest in God." Completely undismayed, this thought will carry you
through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death,
and onward to the certainty of God. There is no suffering it cannot
heal. There is no problem that it cannot solve. And no appearance but
will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest in God."
*As always, the thought for the day is meant to be practiced. This means
looking at the daily storm and strife, misery and pain with Jesus' eyes.
Seeing the world differently, we know that nothing there can affect the
love and peace within. This, then, is the essence of A Course in
Miracles, which is why Jesus needs us to study and practice his
teachings: to be like him -- beacons of light who call to other minds to
join in their rest.*
(4:1-2) "This is the day of peace. You rest in God, and while the world
is torn by winds of hate your rest remains completely undisturbed."
*This does not mean you do not see the world's hate. It means you do not
let it disturb your peace. The world must be filled with hate because
that is why it was made, and love has no place here; only in Heaven,
when you awaken from the ego's dreams. However, in this world,
forgiveness of hate is possible when you do not take it personally or
let it affect you. Such vision occurs because your mind rests on a
foundation of love far, stronger than the ego's hate.*
(4:6 -- 5:1) "They will not hear another voice than yours because you
gave your voice to God, and now you rest in Him and let Him speak
through you."
"In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no
pain, no fear of future and no past regrets."
*Jesus does not say resting in God will take away our individuality. He
does not mean to frighten us. At this stage of our learning it is
important to understand that when we rest in God, we retain a sense of
self, but one free from pain. Remember that the Holy Spirit does not
take away our special relationships, including with our self. He
transforms them from instruments of pain and guilt to ones of
forgiveness and joy, as the following passage explains:
"The Holy Spirit, ever practical in His wisdom, accepts your dreams and
uses them as means for waking. You would have used them to remain
asleep. I said before that the first change, before dreams disappear, is
that your dreams of fear are changed to happy dreams. That is what the
Holy Spirit does in the special relationship. He does not destroy it,
nor snatch it away from you. But He does use it differently, as a help
to make His purpose real to you. The special relationship will remain,
not as a source of pain and guilt, but as a source of joy and freedom.
It will not be for you alone, for therein lay its misery. As its
unholiness kept it a thing apart, its holiness will become an offering
to everyone." (T-18.II.6).
Thus we take the "little steps" (W-pI.193.13.7) that gently and
patiently lead us through pain to peace, time to the timeless instant,
and ultimately to eternal rest in God.*
(6) "Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly
made glad, a bird with broken wings begins to sing, a stream long dry
begins to flow again. The world is born again each time you rest, and
hourly remember that you came to bring the peace of God into the world,
that it might take its rest along with you."
*It goes without saying that Jesus is not literally talking about a
bird's wing being healed or streams flowing. These are but right-minded
symbols. We could be living in the midst of a desert or in a terrible
drought with no birds anywhere, and we would still feel the peace of
God. These wonderful images reflect to us the joy, peace, and quiet that
come to our minds when we choose to be reborn. Since Christ is one, He
can be reborn only as one. The forgotten song has only one note.*
(7) "With each five minutes that you rest today, the world is nearer
waking. And the time when rest will be the only thing there is comes
closer to all worn and tired minds, too weary now to go their way alone.
And they will hear the bird begin to sing and see the stream begin to
flow again, with hope reborn and energy restored to walk with lightened
steps along the road that suddenly seems easy as they go."
*This is a beautiful lesson to read quietly by yourself, and while doing
so, realize if you do not bring your pain and suffering to its thoughts,
they mean nothing more to you than beautiful words that inspire you for
fifteen seconds. You then close the book and return to all that had
disturbed you previously. Yet bringing the upset to the lesson's beauty,
if only for five minutes each hour, is all that is required to share its
vision, that it become your until time ends.*
(8:1) "You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your
brothers from your rest to draw them to their rest, along with you."
*This is not accomplished by external words, but by the simple presence
that reminds them that they can make the same happy choice you did. Love
always calls to love, that it be itself.*
(9) "You rest within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. Each
brother comes to take his rest, and offer it to you. We rest together
here, for thus our rest is made complete, and what we give today we have
received already. Time is not the guardian of what we give today. We
give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and
to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And
we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, "I
rest in God."
*The locus of this rest is the part of the mind wherein dwells the
timeless Thought of God, embracing God's Son as one. In that timeless
instant we find our rest, as we hear God's Voice gently speak to us of
Heaven's love, as we speak to our brothers. The final lines of "Awake in
Stillness" provide a lovely end to the discussion of this lovely lesson:
The Son of God
Has come to join you now. His shining hand
Is on your shoulder. And God's silent Voice
Speaks ceaselessly of Heaven. You will hear
His single message calling to His Own
From His abiding place, to wake in God.
(The Gifts of God, p.73).*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 108.To give and to receive are one in truth.
Lesson 108.To give and to receive are one in truth.
(1) Vision depends upon today's idea. The light is in it, for it
reconciles all seeming opposites. And what is light except the
resolution, born of peace, of all your conflicts and mistaken thoughts
into one concept which is wholly true? Even that one will disappear,
because the Thought behind it will appear instead to take its place. And
now you are at peace forever, for the dream is over then.
(2) True light that makes true vision possible is not the light the
body's eyes behold. It is a state of mind that has become so unified
that darkness cannot be perceived at all. And thus what is the same is
seen as one, while what is not the same remains unnoticed, for it is not
there.
(3) This is the light that shows no opposites, and vision, being healed,
has power to heal. This is the light that brings your peace of mind to
other minds, to share it and be glad that they are one with you and with
themselves. This is the light that heals because it brings single
perception, based upon one frame of reference, from which one meaning
comes.
(4) Here are both giving and receiving seen as different aspects of one
Thought whose truth does not depend on which is seen as first, nor which
appears to be in second place. Here it is understood that both occur
together, that the Thought remain complete. And in this understanding is
the base on which all opposites are reconciled, because they are
perceived from the same frame of reference which unifies this Thought.
(5) One thought, completely unified, will serve to unify all thought.
This is the same as saying one correction will suffice for all
correction, or that to forgive one brother wholly is enough to bring
salvation to all minds. For these are but some special cases of one law
which holds for every kind of learning, if it be directed by the One Who
knows the truth.
(6) To learn that giving and receiving are the same has special
usefulness, because it can be tried so easily and seen as true. And when
this special case has proved it always works, in every circumstance
where it is tried, the thought behind it can be generalized to other
areas of doubt and double vision. And from there it will extend, and
finally arrive at the one Thought which underlies them all.
(7) Today we practice with the special case of giving and receiving. We
will use this simple lesson in the obvious because it has results we
cannot miss. To give is to receive. Today we will attempt to offer peace
to everyone, and see how quickly peace returns to us. Light is
tranquility, and in that peace is vision given us, and we can see.
(8) So we begin the practice periods with the instruction for today, and
say:
<To give and to receive are one in truth.
I will receive what I am giving now.>
Then close your eyes, and for five minutes think of what you would hold
out to everyone, to have it yours. You might, for instance, say:
<To everyone I offer quietness.
To everyone I offer peace of mind.
To everyone I offer gentleness.>
(9) Say each one slowly and then pause a while, expecting to receive the
gift you gave. And it will come to you in the amount in which you gave
it. You will find you have exact return, for that is what you asked. It
might be helpful, too, to think of one to whom to give your gifts. He
represents the others, and through him you give to all.
(10) Our very simple lesson for today will teach you much. Effect and
cause will be far better understood from this time on, and we will make
much faster progress now. Think of the exercises for today as quick
advances in your learning, made still faster and more sure each time you
say, "To give and to receive are one in truth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 108."To give and to receive are one in truth."
*The title gives us the two principle themes of this lesson: giving and
receiving are one; and, derived from the first, our inherent unity as
God's Son. Remembering our Oneness as Christ is the ultimate goal of
Jesus' teaching.*
(1:1) "Vision depends upon today's idea."
*Vision has nothing to do with our eyes, which literally do not see. All
"seeing" reflects a choice we made in our minds for the teacher we want.
If it is the ego, our eyes will see separation; if Jesus, they will
bring back to us his message of oneness. In a separated world, oneness
means shared needs and interests. Despite our different paths, we share
the same hope and goal. Understanding the unity of sharing is the
essence of vision, and why giving and receiving are the same: the Son
gives to himself, who gladly receives the gift from his self.*
(2:1) "True light that makes true vision possible is not the light the
body's eyes behold."
*Vision has nothing to do with seeing auras, physical light, or
experiences in the world. Its light is only in the mind and beyond
sensory perception. Simply stated, it is the light of truth, a thought
within the mind that waits upon our decision to "see" it.*
(3:1) "This is the light that shows no opposites, and vision, being
healed, has power to heal."
*Vision heals the belief in separation, the source of all sickness.
Joining with Jesus, we join with the entire Sonship, ending the
separation as its ends sickness. That is why vision and healing are the
same.
We experience vision by denying, not what our eyes see, but that our
perceptions mean something. Thus the early lessons teach that everything
here is meaningless, for <we> have provided the meaning, which serves to
prove that we are right and Jesus is wrong: separation is alive, well,
and powerful, for look what it has accomplished. These thoughts are
meaningless, however, because they come from nothing, and their darkness
is shined away by the light of truth.*
(4:1) "Here are both giving and receiving seen as different aspects of
one Thought whose truth does not depend on which is seen as first, nor
which appears to be in second place."
*Once again, in the specialness bargains on which our relationships are
based, there is a giver and receiver; and we want to be on top, giving
as little as possible to receive as much as we can. To correct this ego
axiom of <I win, you lose>, Jesus says later in the workbook: "I choose
the second place to gain the first." (W-pII.328) When I no longer have
to be number one, First Cause and the author of my existence, I choose
to be God's Effect. I thus remember I am one with my Source, which puts
me first because in God there is no first and second. We "belong to the
First Cause, created by Him like unto Himself and part of Him"
(T-14.IV.1:7-8):
"The first in time means nothing, but the First in eternity is God the
Father, Who is both First and One. Beyond the First there is no other,
for there is no order, no second or third, and nothing but the First."
(T.14.IV.1.7)
In the dream, we reflect the truth of our oneness by living without
winners and losers, happily understanding we do not have to steal love,
destroy another to get what we want, or be right. If we learn this
lesson, realizing we all are part of the one Son, we will have attained
the non-judgmental state of mind in which there is only vision.*
(4:3 - 5:3) "Here it is understood that both occur together, that the
Thought remain complete. And in this understanding is the base on which
all opposites are reconciled, because they are perceived from the same
frame of reference which unifies this Thought."
"One thought, completely unified, will serve to unify all thought. This
is the same as saying one correction will suffice for all correction, or
that to forgive one brother wholly is enough to bring salvation to all
minds. For these are but some special cases of one law which holds for
every kind of learning, if it be directed by the One Who knows the
truth."
*The message is clear: all is <one>. We have learned that in forgiving
one person totally we have forgiven everyone, because one brother is all
brothers. Recall the following statement, here placed more fully in the
context of generalizing the Holy Spirit's lessons of forgiveness:
"Leave, then, the transfer of your learning to the One Who really
understands its laws, and Who will guarantee that they remain unviolated
and unlimited. Your part is merely to apply what He has taught you to
yourself, and He will do the rest. And it is thus the power of your
learning will be proved to you by all the many different witnesses it
finds. Your brother first among them will be seen, but thousands stand
behind him, and beyond each one of them there are a thousand more."
(T-27.V.10:1-4)
Thus Jesus says that our only responsibility is to accept the Atonement
for ourselves (T-2.V.5:1), which we apply to our special relationships.
Within that specialness is found the entirety of the ego's thought
system and the world's, just as my forgiveness is found the entirety of
the Holy Spirit's thought system -- one problem, one solution.*
(6) "To learn that giving and receiving are the same has special
usefulness, because it can be tried so easily and seen as true. And when
this special case has proved it always works, in every circumstance
where it is tried, the thought behind it can be generalized to other
areas of doubt and double vision. And from there it will extend, and
finally arrive at the one Thought which underlies them all."
*In other words, when I practice the idea for today and ask Jesus' help
to forgive, I learn to generalize from a single relationship to all
relationships.
The term <double vision> has the meaning here of <duality>. When I see
things in double, I see in opposites, an expression of duality. Thus I
practice with my current special relationship by asking Jesus to help me
shift from a perception of differences to one of shared needs and goals.
Such practice will help me generalize to every aspect of my life. The
<one Thought> refers to God's Love, the Oneness that is the source for
all experiences of oneness -- shared interests -- in the world. My
diligent and dedicated daily practice fosters the generalization that
enables me to learn that the principle of "giving and receiving are the
same" heals my split mind, "in every circumstance where it is tried." *
(7) "Today we practice with the special case of giving and receiving. We
will use this simple lesson in the obvious because it has results we
cannot miss. To give is to receive. Today we will attempt to offer peace
to everyone, and see how quickly peace returns to us. Light is
tranquility, and in that peace is vision given us, and we can see."
*Eager to learn the lesson in the specific circumstances of our lives,
we allow our Teacher to generalize our learning to the world. We choose
to <give> forgiveness, so that we may <receive> it. Borrowing from the
inspiring imagery of the text's closing pages, we see these tiny,
scattered threads of forgiveness grow into one inclusive chorus of love,
bringing light and peace to the Sonship, united and healed in Christ's
tranquil vision of oneness" (T-31.VIII.11:5).*
(8) "So we begin the practice periods with the instruction for today,
and say:
To give and to receive are one in truth.
I will receive what I am giving now.
Then close your eyes, and for five minutes think of what you would hold
out to everyone, to have it yours. You might, for instance, say:
To everyone I offer quietness.
To everyone I offer peace of mind.
To everyone I offer gentleness."
*These "affirmations" of our right-minded decision represent the truth
to which we bring our wrong-minded thoughts of separation and <one or
the other>: I win, you lose. I choose to let this principle go so I may
receive the quietness, peace, and gentleness I offer you, my brother in
illusion as well as truth.*
(9:1-3) "Say each one slowly and then pause a while, expecting to
receive the gift you gave. And it will come to you in the amount in
which you gave it. You will find you have exact return, for that is what
you asked."
*How wonderful to learn that when we give we receive, and how
instructive to see our resistance to accepting the truth that our
guiltlessness deserves the peace and love we give to our brothers! If we
do not experience this peace, it is because we are not offering it. The
reader may recall this stunning line from the text, to which we add the
one that follows it:
"If he speaks not of Christ to you, you spoke not of Christ to him. You
hear but your own voice, and if Christ speaks through you, you will hear
Him." (T.11.V.18.6)
Regardless of the ego actions of others, our perception has <only> to do
with a decision our minds make. We must always receive what we ask for;
we must always receive what we give: guilt or forgiveness, separation or
unity.*
(10:1-2) "Our very simple lesson for today will teach you much. Effect
and cause will be far better understood from this time on, and we will
make much faster progress now."
*My pain, unhappiness, and misery are the inevitable result of my belief
that the ego is right and a better teacher than the Holy Spirit. The
<effect> -- what I receive -- directly follows its <cause> -- what I
give. I give only what I wish to learn: the ego's separation or the Holy
Spirit's Atonement. Accepting this fact without argument speeds us along
the pathway Home.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 107. Truth will correct all errors in my mind.
Lesson 107. Truth will correct all errors in my mind.
(1) What can correct illusions but the truth? And what are errors but
illusions that remain unrecognized for what they are? Where truth has
entered errors disappear. They merely vanish, leaving not a trace by
which to be remembered. They are gone because, without belief, they have
no life. And so they disappear to nothingness, returning whence they
came. From dust to dust they come and go, for only truth remains.
(2) Can you imagine what a state of mind without illusions is? How it
would feel? Try to remember when there was a time, -- perhaps a minute,
maybe even less -- when nothing came to interrupt your peace; when you
were certain you were loved and safe. Then try to picture what it would
be like to have that moment be extended to the end of time and to
eternity. Then let the sense of quiet that you felt be multiplied a
hundred times, and then be multiplied another hundred more.
(3) And now you have a hint, not more than just the faintest intimation
of the state your mind will rest in when the truth has come. Without
illusions there could be no fear, no doubt and no attack. When truth has
come all pain is over, for there is no room for transitory thoughts and
dead ideas to linger in your mind. Truth occupies your mind completely,
liberating you from all beliefs in the ephemeral. They have no place
because the truth has come, and they are nowhere. They can not be found,
for truth is everywhere forever, now.
(4) When truth has come it does not stay a while, to disappear or change
to something else. It does not shift and alter in its form, nor come and
go and go and come again. It stays exactly as it always was, to be
depended on in every need, and trusted with a perfect trust in all the
seeming difficulties and the doubts that the appearances the world
presents engender. They will merely blow away, when truth corrects the
errors in your mind.
(5) When truth has come it harbors in its wings the gift of perfect
constancy, and love which does not falter in the face of pain, but looks
beyond it, steadily and sure. Here is the gift of healing, for the truth
needs no defense, and therefore no attack is possible. Illusions can be
brought to truth to be corrected. But the truth stands far beyond
illusions, and can not be brought to them to turn them into truth.
(6) Truth does not come and go nor shift nor change, in this appearance
now and then in that, evading capture and escaping grasp. It does not
hide. It stands in open light, in obvious accessibility. It is
impossible that anyone could seek it truly, and would not succeed. Today
belongs to truth. Give truth its due, and it will give you yours. You
were not meant to suffer and to die. Your Father wills these dreams be
gone. Let truth correct them all.
(7) We do not ask for what we do not have. We merely ask for what
belongs to us, that we may recognize it as our own. Today we practice on
the happy note of certainty that has been born of truth. The shaky and
unsteady footsteps of illusion are not our approach today. We are as
certain of success as we are sure we live and hope and breathe and
think. We do not doubt we walk with truth today, and count on it to
enter into all the exercises that we do this day.
(8) Begin by asking Him Who goes with you upon this undertaking that He
be in your awareness as you go with Him. You are not made of flesh and
blood and bone, but were created by the selfsame Thought which gave the
gift of life to Him as well. He is your Brother, and so like to you your
Father knows that You are Both the same. It is your Self you ask to go
with you, and how could He be absent where you are?
(9) Truth will correct all errors in your mind which tell you you could
be apart from Him. You speak to Him today, and make your pledge to let
His function be fulfilled through you. To share His function is to share
His joy. His confidence is with you, as you say:
<Truth will correct all errors in my mind,
And I will rest in Him Who is my Self.>
Then let Him lead you gently to the truth, which will envelop you and
give you peace so deep and tranquil that you will return to the familiar
world reluctantly.
(10) And yet you will be glad to look again upon this world. For you
will bring with you the promise of the changes which the truth that goes
with you will carry to the world. They will increase with every gift you
give of five small minutes, and the errors that surround the world will
be corrected as you let them be corrected in your mind.
(11) Do not forget your function for today. Each time you tell yourself
with confidence, "Truth will correct all errors in my mind," you speak
for all the world and Him Who would release the world, as He would set
you free.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 107. "Truth will correct all errors in my mind."
*This is a lovely lesson that contrasts truth and illusion, and even
more to the point, makes it clear the impossibility of our understanding
truth and how happy it will make us. This is why throughout A Course in
Miracles Jesus talks to us about the <reflections> of truth or holiness.
Strictly speaking, of course, truth and holiness exist only in Heaven.*
(1:1-2) "What can correct illusions but the truth? And what are errors
but illusions that remain unrecognized for what they are?"
*This is the ego's thought system, which consists of the double shield
of oblivion: The world is the external shield "protecting" us from the
mind's guilt, and the guilt is the internal shield "protecting" us from
the mind's love, which undoes our individuality and specialness. The
point is to recognize the error, which is not in bodies, but in our
minds, where truth resides as well.
Jesus now describes what is basically impossible to describe:*
(2:1 -- 3:1) "Can you imagine what a state of mind without illusions is?
How it would feel? Try to remember when there was a time, -- perhaps a
minute, maybe even less -- when nothing came to interrupt your peace;
when you were certain you were loved and safe. Then try to picture what
it would be like to have that moment be extended to the end of time and
to eternity. Then let the sense of quiet that you felt be multiplied a
hundred times, and then be multiplied another hundred more."
"And now you have a hint, not more than just the faintest intimation of
the state your mind will rest in when the truth has come."
*Our thoughts on happiness and peace are but a <very, very, very> faint
glimmer of their true nature. Thus Jesus asks: "Why would you throw away
this glorious reality of my love, reflecting to you God's Love and the
source of your happiness, and choose instead the tiny bits of special
nothings that you covet, cherish, and would even kill for? Whatever you
think constitutes the truth of your safety is mistaken." Note that Jesus
does not speak of the body but of the mind -- the source of our misery
and pain, and happiness and peace.
This passage also implies there is no way the body could ever know real
peace, for peace does not reside in the world nor the various states to
which we aspire, but only in the mind made free of guilt and fear. That
is the peace St. Paul described as passing all understanding
(Philippians 4:7), and of which the manual for teachers speaks:
"It has been said that there is a kind of peace that is not of this
world ... in every way it is totally unlike all previous experiences. It
calls to mind nothing that went before. It brings with it no past
associations. It is a new thing entirely.... the simple understanding
that His Will is wholly without opposite. There is no thought that
contradicts His Will, yet can be true. ... The Will of God is one and
all there is. This is your heritage. The universe beyond the sun and
stars, and all the thoughts of which you can conceive, belong to you.
God's peace is the condition for His Will. Attain His peace, and you
remember Him." (M-20.1:1;2:2-5;6:2-3,9-13).
Can anything here even approach that state? *
(4:1) "When truth has come it does not stay a while, to disappear or
change to something else."
*Everything in this world changes and metamorphoses into something else.
No matter how much we covet and seek their satisfaction, we know from
experience the good feeling does not last, the proof it is not the
truth. Indeed, our most special relationship of all -- with our bodies
-- ends in total failure, for we all die. Yet if the love of Jesus is
present in our relationships, the good feeling must and will last. His
love alone, reflecting the eternal Love of God will endure, while we
dream. The forms of specialness -- the thrills, excitements, and
pleasures are transient. Thus Jesus' love is a constant appeal to us,
for he designates "what lasts" as the criterion for distinguishing
between the valuable and the valueless, as we shall see later in Lesson
133.*
(5:1) "When truth has come it harbors in its wings the gift of perfect
constancy, and love which does not falter in the face of pain, but looks
beyond it, steadily and sure."
*Again, Jesus is not saying there will be no pain or difficulty; they
are undone by realizing that their cause does not lie in the external,
or in the failure of our needs to be met, but in, quite simply, having
dropped his hand. Pain thus comes from telling Jesus: "I am not
interested in you, for I know better"; while peace is the happy result
of admitting we were wrong.*
(6:1-4) "Truth does not come and go nor shift nor change, in this
appearance now and then in that, evading capture and escaping grasp. It
does not hide. It stands in open light, in obvious accessibility. It is
impossible that anyone could seek it truly, and would not succeed."
*If we do not feel the truth and comfort of Jesus' love, it is because
we have not sought it, as we are afraid of the light and wish to remain
in darkness. Our special bodies reflect the ego's thought system of
darkness, which we cling to because we fear the light of truth in which
our individuality would go, as would our problems, judgments, and
grievances. Without these, who would we be? Revisiting these telling
lines, we read of the ego's fear:
"There is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this:
"I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am
doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself."
Yet in this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you
of Itself." (T-31.V.17.6-9).
Thus we do not seek truth truly, for we do not want to succeed and hear
our Self tell us What we are.*
(7) "We do not ask for what we do not have. We merely ask for what
belongs to us, that we may recognize it as our own. Today we practice on
the happy note of certainty that has been born of truth. The shaky and
unsteady footsteps of illusion are not our approach today. We are as
certain of success as we are sure we live and hope and breathe and
think. We do not doubt we walk with truth today, and count on it to
enter into all the exercises that we do this day."
*Our asking for what belongs to us is the accepting of the Atonement,
asking the decision-making part of our minds to choose again -- the
truth of what we are over the illusion. Since we are asking only for
truth, we cannot fail. Illusions have no power once we withdraw our
belief in them. Today's exercises take us further down the path of
certainty, which we take us further down the path of certainty, which
we happily walk with the truth of Jesus' love by our side.*
(8:1) "Begin by asking Him Who goes with you upon this undertaking that
He be in your awareness as you go with Him."
*Jesus asks again to choose him or the Holy Spirit as our Guide as we go
through the day, bringing to Them all forms of upset and disquiet, the
myriad ways we had chosen illusion over truth. Changing teachers, our
journey to nowhere becomes the journey home.*
(9: 1-5) "Truth will correct all errors in your mind which tell you you
could be apart from Him. You speak to Him today, and make your pledge to
let His function be fulfilled through you. To share His function is to
share His joy. His confidence is with you, as you say:
<Truth will correct all errors in my mind,
And I will rest in Him Who is my Self.>"
*Thus we choose to remember our function of forgiveness: bringing the
errors of past mistaken choices to the truth in our minds, as we walk
the path that leads to our Self.*
(9:6) "Then let Him lead you gently to the truth, which will envelop you
and give you peace so deep and tranquil that you will return to the
familiar world reluctantly."
*Jesus addresses the integration of what we know to be the truth in our
minds with our functioning in the world, and example of biblical idea of
being in the world and yet not of it (John 17:14,16,18). This means we
continue to live in the world, because the experience of light, truth,
and love is so wonderful that by contrast the world seems a veritable
hell. Thus Jesus tells us he knows what we feel, at the same time
encouraging the right-minded part of our minds. In fact it is the
experience of peace that enables us to "return" to the world, but
differently, an important theme to which we shall return. The power of
this peace was nicely captured in another of Helen's poems, "Awake in
Stillness":
Peace cover you, within without the same,
In shining silence and peace so deep
No dream of sin and evil can come near
Your quiet mind.
(The Gifts of God, p.73).*
(10:1-2) "And yet you will be glad to look again upon this world. For
you will bring with you the promise of the changes which the truth that
goes with you will carry to the world."
* What are these changes? Before I asked Jesus for help, I was
miserable, angry, depressed, anxious, and a very unhappy victim.
Realizing I would be happier with a new teacher, I released my
investment in the ego's specialness. Thus I am seen differently, for I
<am> different. As the workbook says later: I "smile more frequently"
(W-p1.155.1:2). This indicates something has changed -- anger and
depression to happiness and joy -- and says, in effect: because minds
are one, the choice I have made you can make, the teacher I have chosen
is in your mind as well.
That is the meaning of Jesus' lovely statement in the text, "Teach not
that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating
that I live in you" (T-11.VI.7:3-4). Our happiness demonstrates his life
in us. This does not mean we literally walk around smiling, but that we
remain peaceful, knowing that nothing in the world has power to disrupt
our peace. Living in the presence of Jesus' love means we live with his
presence all the time. Our quiet joy witnesses to his truth in our
minds, as all our ego thoughts are gently laid aside. The joy born of
the forgiveness of ourselves extends gladly through the Sonship and is
carried to the world.*
(11) "Do not forget your function for today. Each time you tell yourself
with confidence, "Truth will correct all errors in my mind," you speak
for all the world and Him Who would release the world, as He would set
you free."
*What better way to end the discussion of this lesson than to quote the
end of the manual for teachers. These lovely verses, already partly
quoted, encapsulate our function of forgiving ourselves, thereby
forgiving the world. Jesus' gratitude to us echoes our own to him, who
led us to this sacred place, wherein our choice was made for truth
instead of illusion, freedom instead of imprisonment, life instead of
death:
"And now in all your doings be you blessed.
God turns to you for help to save the world.
Teacher of God, His thanks He offers you,
And all the world stands silent in the grace
You bring from Him. You are the Son He loves,
And it is given you to be the means
Through which His Voice is heard around the world,
To close all things of time; to end the sight
Of all things visible; and to undo
All things that change. Through you is ushered in
A world unseen, unheard, yet truly there.
Holy are you, and in your light the world
Reflects your holiness, for you are not
Alone and friendless. I give thanks for you,
And join your efforts on behalf of God,
Knowing they are on my behalf as well,
And for all those who walk to God with me. AMEN." (M-29.8).*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 106. Let me be still and listen to the truth.
Lesson 106. Let me be still and listen to the truth.
(1) If you will lay aside the ego's voice, however loudly it may seem to
call, if you will not accept its petty gifts that give you nothing that
you really
want; if you will listen with an open mind, that has not told you what
salvation is; then you will hear the mighty Voice of truth, quiet in
power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in Its messages.
(2) Listen, and hear your Father speak to you through His appointed
Voice, which silences the thunder of the meaningless, and shows the way
to peace to those who cannot see. Be still today and listen to the
truth. Be not deceived by voices of the dead, which tell you they have
found the source of life and offer it to you for your belief. Attend
them not, but listen to the truth.
(3) Be not afraid today to circumvent the voices of the world. Walk
lightly past their meaningless persuasion. Hear them not. Be still today
and listen to the truth. Go past all things which do not speak of Him
Who holds your happiness within His Hand, held out to you in welcome and
in love. Hear only Him today, and do not wait to reach Him longer. Hear
one Voice today.
(4) Today the promise of God's Word is kept. Hear and be silent. He
would speak to you. He comes with miracles a thousand times as happy and
as wonderful as those you ever dreamed or wished for in your dreams. His
miracles are true. They will not fade when dreaming ends. They end the
dream instead; and last forever, for they come from God to His dear Son,
whose other name is you. Prepare yourself for miracles today. Today
allow your Father's ancient pledge to you and all your brothers to be
kept.
(5) Hear Him today, and listen to the Word which lifts the veil that
lies upon the earth, and wakes all those who sleep and cannot see. God
calls to them through you. He needs your voice to speak to them, for who
could reach God's Son except his Father, calling through your Self? Hear
Him today, and offer Him your voice to speak to all the multitude who
wait to hear the Word that He will speak today.
(6) Be ready for salvation. It is here, and will today be given unto
you. And you will learn your function from the One Who chose it in your
Father's Name for you. Listen today, and you will hear a Voice which
will resound throughout the world through you. The bringer of all
miracles has need that you receive them first, and thus become the
joyous giver of what you received.
(7) Thus does salvation start and thus it ends; when everything is yours
and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever. And the
lesson has been learned. Today we practice giving, not the way you
understand it now, but as it is. Each hour's exercises should begin with
this request for your enlightenment:
<I will be still and listen to the truth.
What does it mean to give and to receive?>
(8) Ask and expect an answer. Your request is one whose answer has been
waiting long to be received by you. It will begin the ministry for which
you came, and which will free the world from thinking giving is a way to
lose. And so the world becomes ready to understand and to receive.
(9) Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent
in listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth and they will
hear the holy Word you hear. And when the hour is past, you will again
release a thousand more to pause to ask that truth be given them, along
with you.
(10) Today the holy Word of God is kept through your receiving it to
give away, so you can teach the world what giving means by listening and
learning it of Him. Do not forget today to reinforce your choice to hear
and to receive the Word by this reminder, given to yourself as often as
is possible today:
<Let me be still and listen to the truth.
I am the messenger of God today, My voice is His, to give what I
receive.>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 106. "Let me be still and listen to the truth."
*The title itself is extremely important because -- as I have repeatedly
emphasized, reflecting the Course's emphasis -- the means by which we
have access to the truth and experience Jesus' love is letting go of our
egos. Recalling an earlier lesson, Jesus refers to the ego's voice in
our minds as "raucous shrieks" (W-pl.49.4.3). It's noise is always in
our minds, and being still means our decision maker recognizes it made a
mistake. Thus we choose against the ego thought system of specialness
and for its correction; against illusion and for the truth. This lesson
-- and the title itself -- is another reminder of the need for us to be
still to the ego, by shifting our investment from being right to being
happy.*
(1) "If you will lay aside the ego's voice, however loudly it may seem
to call, if you will not accept its petty gifts that give you nothing
that you really
want; if you will listen with an open mind, that has not told you what
salvation is; then you will hear the mighty Voice of truth, quiet in
power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in Its messages."
*This restates what I was just saying. We have all preferred the ego's
petty gifts of individuality and specialness over the glorious gift of
God, which Jesus holds out for us. His gift of forgiveness undoes the
ego through our realizing we all are one -- united in the dream by
sharing the need to return home, and united in our Identity as Christ.
The strength of the Holy Spirit's Presence and Jesus' love lie in their
quietness and stillness. It is the ego that needs to make a racket.
Whenever, for example, we are certain about something and need to let
everyone know how right, wonderful, and holy we are, we know it is the
ego speaking. The Voice of the Holy Spirit, with which we truly want to
identify, is quiet and does not call attention to itself. It simply is:
"quiet in power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in Its
messages." The need to be special and right gives away the fact that we
have chosen the ego as our teacher.*
(2:1) "Listen, and hear your Father speak to you through His appointed
Voice, which silences the thunder of the meaningless, and shows the way
to peace to those who cannot see."
*Again, those who are certain do not make commotions about themselves.
They do not make big deals about things, because in the certainty of
their mind's quietness they realize nothing here is important, including
one's individual and special self; only experiencing God's Love is
important, and there is nothing comparable to it here. Hearing the Holy
Spirit's Voice that speaks for that Love dissolves the meaningless self
and ends all conflict, lighting the way for our return to peace. The
"thunder of the meaningless" gives way to the simple silence of the
truth.*
(3:1-5) "Be not afraid today to circumvent the voices of the world. Walk
lightly past their meaningless persuasion. Hear them not. Be still today
and listen to the truth. Go past all things which do not speak of Him
Who holds your happiness within His Hand, held out to you in welcome and
in love."
*Jesus speaks this way because we fear that if we circumvent or avoid
the world's voices, we would disappear. These voices witness to our
seeming reality as separated and special individuals, and our fear of
turning from our authority and going against its truth is of our
vanishing into the "nothingness" of God, losing our individuality
forever. This, then, is the thought preventing us from reaching for His
Hand, symbolized for us by Jesus' presence on our journey home. As we
see repeatedly throughout A Course in Miracles, the way we say "yes" to
Jesus love is to say "no" to the ego thought system we believe is our
foundation. By thus going past the voices of the world -- our special
idols -- we reach for the "Hand" of God, hearing only His Voice that
speaks of the happiness and welcoming love awaiting us at the journey's
end.*
(4:1) "Today the promise of God's Word is kept. Hear and be silent."
*When <Word> is capitalized in the Course, it almost always is
understood as some expression of the Atonement principle -- the
correction for the error, the Holy Spirit, or forgiveness -- which
represents undoing the ego's thought system. By it's very nature as the
reflection of God's truth, it cannot <not> be true; its promise cannot
<not> be kept.*
(5:1-3) "Hear Him today, and listen to the Word which lifts the veil
that lies upon the earth, and wakes all those who sleep and cannot see.
God calls to them through you. He needs your voice to speak to them, for
who could reach God's Son except his Father, calling through your Self?"
*This is a theme we shall see repeated. It is based on the now -
familiar idea that God's Son is one. Jesus is not saying we should learn
these lessons of forgiveness, and then preach his gospel to the world.
Other systems teach that, but not this one. Indeed, we do not preach or
teach anything. We simply accept Jesus' love, which embraces every
seemingly separated mind in the Sonship, since minds are one. Mind
extends to mind, reflecting the original extension of God's Mind to the
Mind of Christ.
Again, we do nothing. If the love of Jesus motivates us, inspiring us to
do things in the world, we of course do them. Yet the core of A Course
in Miracles' curriculum involves stilling the ego's voices in our minds
and identifying with Jesus' words. Accepting his love, we allow it to
guide us in everything we think, feel, say, and do. In that sense the
world is healed, because it does not exist outside our minds.
Incidentally, we find here the adumbration of the beautiful and more
developed passage in the Introduction to the fifth review, where Jesus
says he needs us to hear his words and give them to the world, that it
be saved" (W-pI. rV.in.9:2-3).*
(5:4) "Hear Him today, and offer Him your voice to speak to all the
multitude who wait to hear the Word that He will speak today."
*We speak His Word in silence, because Love soundlessly speaks no words.
Since we believe we are bodies, however, the soundless word of love's
presence will often take shape in our behavior and words as it extends
through us. Yet it is not that inspires them. Our task is simply to get
in touch with that love. It then does the rest.*
(6:1-2) "Be ready for salvation. It is here, and will today be given
unto you."
*Salvation will be given us in the instant -- the holy instant -- we
choose to accept it, which we do by setting aside the ego's voice. Our
Teacher cannot wait to give us what we already have:
"The eagerness of the Holy Spirit to give you this is so intense He
would not wait, although He waits in patience. Meet His patience with
your impatience at delay in meeting Him. Go out in gladness to meet with
your Redeemer, and walk with Him in trust out of this world, and into
the real world of beauty and forgiveness." (T-17.II.8:3-5).
Knowing that beauty is what awaits our choice, who could not share the
Holy Spirit's eagerness? *
(7:1) "Thus does salvation start and thus it ends; when everything is
yours and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever."
*Salvation begins in our minds -- the source of the error -- and ends
there when we choose to correct the error and accept the Atonement, as
the early passage in the text explains:
"... the undoing process, which does not come from you, is nevertheless
within you because God placed it there. Your part is merely to return
your thinking to the point at which the error was made, and give it over
to the Atonement in peace." (T.5.VII.6.4-5).
Needless to say, this idea of giving and receiving has nothing to do
with the world's understanding. When everything is mine and I accept
God's Love as my Identity, the Sonship is united in that Self. There is
no loss but only gain -- for <all>.*
(7:3 --8:2) "Today we practice giving, not the way you understand it
now, but as it is. Each hour's exercises should begin with this request
for your enlightenment:
<I will be still and listen to the truth.
What does it mean to give and to receive?>"
"Ask and expect an answer. Your request is one whose answer has been
waiting long to be received by you."
*The answer, again, is the Atonement principle. It is not a specific
answer that would have Jesus telling us, for example, to say this, do
that, or go there, but God's wordless Word. Even though the answer
awaits in our minds, we fear its implications. Therefore, we need these
practice periods as gentle reminders that if we see through the ego's
lies -- e.g., giving and receiving are different -- the resultant
stillness would allow us to hear the Holy Spirit's Voice correcting our
errors. Forgiveness enables us to be still, so we may receive the love
that is ours and the world's, with no loss to anyone.*
(9) "Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent
in listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth and they will
hear the holy Word you hear. And when the hour is past, you will again
release a thousand more to pause to ask that truth be given them, along
with you."
*Recall the term <thousand> in A Course in Miracles symbolizes a large
number. Thus thousands will receive this gift of Atonement when we
accept it for ourselves, reminding the Sonship, as did Jesus, that there
is another choice that can be made. It yet remains the Sonship's
decision, as it was ours, <when> to choose to accept God's Word.*
(10) "Today the holy Word of God is kept through your receiving it to
give away, so you can teach the world what giving means by listening and
learning it of Him. Do not forget today to reinforce your choice to hear
and to receive the Word by this reminder, given to yourself as often as
is possible today:
<Let me be still and listen to the truth.
I am the messenger of God today, My voice is His, to give what I
receive.>"
*Learning that giving and receiving are the same, we allow truth to be
itself. Letting go of grievances, memories of victimization, and
specialness needs entails no sacrifice or loss. To the contrary, the
process of forgiveness that is our gift to Jesus, as it is to the
Sonship, frees us to receive the memory of the love from which we had
separated. Without the barriers of hate to block love's flow, it gently
extends throughout the Sonship, delivering the happy message of God's
Word: the truth is here, and is ours for the asking.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 105. God's peace and joy are mine.
Lesson 105. God's peace and joy are mine.
(1) God's peace and joy are yours. Today we will accept them, knowing
they belong to us. And we will try to understand these gifts increase as
we receive them. They are not like to the gifts the world can give, in
which the giver loses as he gives the gift; the taker is the richer by
his loss. Such are not gifts, but bargains made with guilt. The truly
given gift entails no loss. It is impossible that one can gain because
another loses. This implies a limit and an insufficiency.
(2) No gift is given thus. Such "gifts" are but a bid for a more
valuable return; a loan with interest to be paid in full; a temporary
lending, meant to be a pledge of debt to be repaid with more than was
received by him who took the gift. This strange distortion of what
giving means pervades all levels of the world you see. It strips all
meaning from the gifts you give, and leaves you nothing in the ones you
take.
(3) A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view of
giving, so you can receive. For giving has become a source of fear, and
so you would avoid the only means by which you can receive. Accept God's
peace and joy, and you will learn a different way of looking at a gift.
God's gifts will never lessen when they are given away. They but
increase thereby.
(4) As Heaven's peace and joy intensify when you accept them as God's
gift to you, so does the joy of your Creator grow when you accept His
joy and peace as yours. True giving is creation. It extends the
limitless to the unlimited, eternity to timelessness, and love unto
itself. It adds to all that is complete already, not in simple terms of
adding more, for that implies that it was less before. It adds by
letting what cannot contain itself fulfill its aim of giving everything
it has away, securing it forever for itself.
(5) Today accept God's peace and joy as yours. Let Him complete Himself
as He defines completion. You will understand that what completes Him
must complete His Son as well. He cannot give through loss. No more can
you. Receive His gift of joy and peace today, and He will thank you for
your gift to Him.
(6) Today our practice periods will start a little differently. Begin
today by thinking of those brothers who have been denied by you the
peace and joy that are their right under the equal laws of God. Here you
denied them to yourself. And here you must return to claim them as your
own."
(7) Think of your "enemies" a little while, and tell each one, as he
occurs to you:
<My brother, peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.>
Thus you prepare yourself to recognize God's gifts to you, and let your
mind be free of all that would prevent success today. Now are you ready
to accept the gift of peace and joy that God has given you. Now are you
ready to experience the joy and peace you have denied yourself. Now you
can say, "God's peace and joy are mine," for you have given what you
would receive.
(8) You must succeed today, if you prepare your mind as we suggest. For
you have let all bars to peace and joy be lifted up, and what is yours
can come to you at last. So tell yourself, "God's peace and joy are
mine," and close your eyes a while, and let His Voice assure you that
the words you speak are true.
(9) Spend your five minutes thus with Him each time you can today, but
do not think that less is worthless when you cannot give Him more. At
least remember hourly to say the words which call to Him to give you
what He wills to give, and wills you to receive. Determine not to
interfere today with what He wills. And if a brother seems to tempt you
to deny God's gift to him, see it as but another chance to let yourself
receive the gifts of God as yours. Then bless your brother thankfully,
and say:
<My brother, peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 105. "God's peace and joy are mine."
*In the context of "undoing," Jesus teaches us here about the ego's
strange notion of giving. Even though he does not use the word
<specialness>, that is his point of reference -- the <giving-to-get>
bargain: I give something to you, so I get something back in return. If
I give you more than I really want to give, then I lose. The oft-cited
fourth and fifth laws of chaos (T-23.II.9-13) are among the clearest
expression of this ego dynamic of scarcity and hate.*
(1:1-2) "God's peace and joy are yours. Today we will accept them,
knowing they belong to us."
*The way we accept them is by no longer accepting the ego's substitutes.
Letting go of the blocks of specialness is how we remember that God's
peace and joy are ours.*
(2) "No gift is given thus. Such "gifts" are but a bid for a more
valuable return; a loan with interest to be paid in full; a temporary
lending, meant to be a pledge of debt to be repaid with more than was
received by him who took the gift. This strange distortion of what
giving means pervades all levels of the world you see. It strips all
meaning from the gifts you give, and leaves you nothing in the ones you
take."
*This is another description of special relationships. I want something
from you, but you withhold it because you are fighting the same war I
am. It must be so, because you do not exist outside my specialness, I
must pay you for what I want, for we are both playing by the same rules:
I want to give up as little as I can, and get as much as possible from
my investment. That is the meaning of "a loan with interest to be paid
in full," a gift that is given in hopes of "a more valuable return."
These are not gifts at all, but the ego's insane bargains made with
guilt.
Through our suffering and misery, we hope to pay God sufficiently so He
will not be angry. In return we want His forgiveness to rest on us and
not others, that we may return to Heaven at the expense of another: the
unbeliever, the unchristian Christian, the bad student of A Course in
Miracles. This hateful application of <one or the other> has been at the
heart of the Christian message, a phenomenon rapidly spreading
throughout the Course's world as well. Needless to say, this is not
loving or giving, because such an attitude implies a belief in sacrifice
-- one winning, another losing; one saved, another damned. The bottom
line is our feeling unworthy of happiness or love, and grasping at the
ego's straws of specialness to hide the pain.*
(3:1) "A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view
of giving, so you can receive."
*We know this from the text; and there are many lessons in the workbook
that discuss undoing the ego's notion of <giving to get>. To the ego it
is always <one or the other>. Lesson 108 "To give and to receive are one
in truth," and Lesson 126 "All that I give is given to myself" provide
major emphasis to this theme (W-pI.108; W-pI126); and there are many
passages in the text as well. Among others, we can cite the following
incisive discussion from the text:
"Only those who have a real and lasting sense of abundance can be truly
charitable ... To the ego, to give anything implies that you will have
to do without it. When you associate giving with sacrifice, you give
only because you believe that you are somehow getting something better,
and can therefore do without the thing you give. "Giving to get" is an
inescapable law of the ego, which always evaluates itself in relation to
other egos. It is therefore continually preoccupied with the belief in
scarcity that gave rise to it. ... The ego never gives out of abundance,
because it was made as a substitute for it. That is why the concept of
"getting" arose in the ego's thought system." (T-4.II.6:1,3-6;7:3-4).
Unlearning a principle that is the foundation of our very existence
requires dedication and persistence, traits the workbook aims at
instilling in us by teaching how vital they are for achieving our
happiness.*
(4:1) "As Heaven's peace and joy intensify when you accept them as God's
gift to you, so does the joy of your Creator grow when you accept His
joy and peace as yours."
*Here we find another metaphor. God's joy does not grow. The world's
"joy" grows, in that the more we steal, the more joyful we become. These
lines that are part of Jesus' gentle fairy tale that lovingly reassures
us that "Daddy loves us, and His joy increases the closer we come to
Him." The truth behind the fairy tale is that God's infinite Love is
always; it cannot lessen, it cannot grow. It simply <is>. Our
experiences of His love "grows," however, as we choose to identify with
it more and the ego less. In this world, concepts such as <more> or
<less> have meaning, but only insofar as they reflect the mind's
decision for God or the ego, the gifts of love or fear.*
(5:1-2) "Today accept God's peace and joy as yours. Let Him complete
Himself as He defines completion."
*This implies God was incomplete, and therefore this statement, too,
must be understood metaphorically. Completion for God is the totality
and wholeness of His being. Therefore, what "completes God" is our
acceptance of His truth and denial of the ego's form of completion: our
lack is supplied by taking; which means stealing from the outside in
order to be complete.*
*Paragraphs 6 and 7 present an exercise that Jesus repeats throughout
the workbook, asking us to choose someone we think of as an enemy or
friend, realizing this person is one with us. Here the focus is on the
people we think of as enemies.*
(6) "Today our practice periods will start a little differently. Begin
today by thinking of those brothers who have been denied by you the
peace and joy that are their right under the equal laws of God. Here you
denied them to yourself. And here you must return to claim them as your
own."
*We are told our attacks on another constitute an attack on ourselves,
since God's Son is one. This idea of seeing that the enemy is "us," to
cite the famous line from Walt Kelly's Pogo, finds consummate expression
in the Song of Prayer, and the following passage about praying for
others is illustrative:
"Praying for others, if rightly understood, becomes a means for lifting
your projections of guilt from your brother, and enabling you to
recognize it is not he who is hurting you. The poisonous thought that he
<is> your enemy, your evil counterpart, your nemesis, must be
relinquished before <you> can be saved from guilt." (S-1.III.1:4-5).
These exercises help us reconsider our perceptions of others and
ourselves, correcting them from separate to shared interests.
The instructions for the exercises continue:*
(7:1-2) "Think of your "enemies" a little while, and tell each one, as
he occurs to you:
<My brother, peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.>"
*This is the central focus of A Course in Miracles learning to accept
Jesus' gifts by correcting our misperception. In the end, we realize
there is no one to forgive, but until we understand we are really
forgiving ourselves, we need to practice on others. Through the
successful completion of the exercise we shall come to recognize there
is no enemy out there, which is why the word is in quotation marks. The
enemy was simply our faulty decision-making.
As an example, if I think of you as an enemy, at some point I realize
something is wrong because I see you as separate and different from me.
Jesus teaches that what I see as enmity between you and me is a
projection of the enmity I believe is between me and God. The special
relationship -- love or hate -- I experience between us (in the body) is
nothing but the projection of my special relationship with the ego (in
my mind). In asking Jesus to help me forgive you, I am really asking his
help to forgive myself. This occurs through realizing the relationship I
see outside mirrors the relationship I made real and sinful inside, so
much so, that cannot look at it. The problem that needs correcting,
therefore, is not external, but within me. As Jesus states in the text:
"The secret of salvation is but this: That you are doing this unto
yourself." (T.27.VIII.10.1).*
(8:1-2) "You must succeed today, if you prepare your mind as we
suggest."
*Once again we see the message of A Course in Miracles succinctly
expressed. If I want to know God's peace and joy, I need to lift up the
bars I placed between myself and them. They are the belief that peace
come at someone's else's expense. The bars strengthen the more I suffer
and the guiltier I can be, because my secret peace and joy is my
existence, for which God will not punish me. Thus I did it again, -- I
stole, and keep what I stole. My secret is hidden and no one will know,
and we laughingly think this is what will make us happy. The ego is
happy, to be sure, because we have solidified our individual self and
blamed someone else for the sin. Such projection perpetuates the ego's
peace and joy. Recognizing the sheer insanity of this position is what
allows its bars to be lifted up. Returning to The Song of Prayer, we
read:
"But once the need to hold the other as an enemy has been questioned,
and the reason for doing so has been recognized if only for an instant,
it becomes possible to join in prayer. Enemies do not share a goal. It
is in this their enmity is kept. Their separate wishes are their
arsenals; their fortresses in hate. The key to rising further still in
prayer lies in this simple thought; this change of mind:
We go together, you and I." (S-1.IV.1:3-8).
Realizing "the ark of peace is entered two by two" (T-20.IV.6:5) is the
way we and our brothers return Home -- <together>.*
(8:3 -- 9:2) "For you have let all bars to peace and joy be lifted up,
and what is yours can come to you at last. So tell yourself, "God's
peace and joy are mine," and close your eyes a while, and let His Voice
assure you that the words you speak are true."
"Spend your five minutes thus with Him each time you can today, but do
not think that less is worthless when you cannot give Him more. At least
remember hourly to say the words which call to Him to give you what He
wills to give, and wills you to receive."
*By silencing the ego's voice of specialness, we allow ourselves to hear
the Voice that speaks to us throughout the day (W-p1.49). Jesus comforts
us with the thought that we do not have to hear the Holy Spirit all the
time, and we should not minimize the effect of <any> time we give to
Him. This being said, however, Jesus does ask us to remember our Teacher
at least once an hour. He would not be making such a request if he did
not feel we were already far enough along in our training -- almost a
third of the way through -- that we would at the very least want to
think of the Holy Spirit and our salvation once an hour.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 104. I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
Lesson 104. I seek but what belongs to me in truth.(1) Today's idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not but idledreams. They are your right, because of what you are. They come to you from God,Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. Yet must there be a place made readyto receive His gifts. They are not welcomed gladly by a mind that has insteadreceived the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.(2) Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we haveplaced upon the holy altar where God's gifts belong. His are the gifts that areour own in truth. His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and thatwill still be ours when time has passed into eternity. His are the gifts thatare within us now, for they are timeless. And we need not wait to have them.They belong to us today.(3) Therefore, we choose to have them now, and know, in choosing them in placeof what we made, we but unite our will with what God wills, and recognize thesame as being one. Our longer practice periods today, the hourly five minutesgiven truth for your salvation, should begin with this:I seek but what belongs to me in truth, And joy and peace are my inheritance.<Then lay aside the conflicts of the world that offer other gifts and other goalsmade of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world ofdreams.(4) All this we lay aside, and seek instead that which is truly ours, as we askto recognize what God has given us. We clear a holy place within our mindsbefore His altar, where His gifts of peace and joy are welcome, and to which wecome to find what has been given us by Him. We come in confidence today, awarethat what belongs to us in truth is what He gives. And we would wish for nothingelse, for nothing else belongs to us in truth.(5) So do we clear the way for Him today by simply recognizing that His Will isdone already, and that joy and peace belong to us as His eternal gifts. We willnot let ourselves lose sight of them between the times we come to seek for themwhere He has laid them. This reminder will we bring to mind as often as we can:I seek but what belongs to me in truth. God's gifts of joy and peace are all I want.<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 104. I seek but what belongs to me in truth.(1) Today's idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not but idledreams. They are your right, because of what you are. They come to you from God,Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. Yet must there be a place made readyto receive His gifts. They are not welcomed gladly by a mind that has insteadreceived the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.(2) Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we haveplaced upon the holy altar where God's gifts belong. His are the gifts that areour own in truth. His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and thatwill still be ours when time has passed into eternity. His are the gifts thatare within us now, for they are timeless. And we need not wait to have them.They belong to us today.(3) Therefore, we choose to have them now, and know, in choosing them in placeof what we made, we but unite our will with what God wills, and recognize thesame as being one. Our longer practice periods today, the hourly five minutesgiven truth for your salvation, should begin with this:I seek but what belongs to me in truth, And joy and peace are my inheritance.<Then lay aside the conflicts of the world that offer other gifts and other goalsmade of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world ofdreams.(4) All this we lay aside, and seek instead that which is truly ours, as we askto recognize what God has given us. We clear a holy place within our mindsbefore His altar, where His gifts of peace and joy are welcome, and to which wecome to find what has been given us by Him. We come in confidence today, awarethat what belongs to us in truth is what He gives. And we would wish for nothingelse, for nothing else belongs to us in truth.(5) So do we clear the way for Him today by simply recognizing that His Will isdone already, and that joy and peace belong to us as His eternal gifts. We willnot let ourselves lose sight of them between the times we come to seek for themwhere He has laid them. This reminder will we bring to mind as often as we can:I seek but what belongs to me in truth. God's gifts of joy and peace are all I want.<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries ofbooks, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which canbe purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 104. "I seek but what belongs to me in truth."*As Jesus continues his theme of happiness, he speaks to us specifically aboutletting go of what the ego has told us is the truth, for only real truth willmake us happy.*(1:1) "Today's idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not butidle dreams."*It can be tempting when working with A Course in Miracles to believe that whenJesus talks about our peace, joy, and happiness, they are idle words that soundpretty, but do not work. However, they do not work because we do not want themto. If we were truly peaceful, joyful and happy, we would no longer be themiserable and victimized selves we thought we were. Thus we are attracted tofinding guilt in others, reinforcing its presence in ourselves and proving weare right and Jesus is wrong.*(1:2-5) "They are your right, because of what you are. They come to you fromGod, Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. Yet must there be a place madeready to receive His gifts. They are not welcomed gladly by a mind that hasinstead received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them."*The condition -- "Yet must there be a place made ready" -- is not something Godordains, a condition to which we must adhere otherwise He will not love us. Thefact is we cannot know we are God's beloved child whose sins are undone as longas we cherish the gifts we made. In other words, responsibility comes back tous, a theme enunciated over and over in this lesson. It is short, but what comesthrough repeatedly in the lesson is that in order for us to experience thetruth, we have first to let go of what we believed was the truth. A Course inMiracles is thus helping us restore to the mind its power to have chosen againstGod, realize the mistake, and then correct it by choosing Jesus as our teacher.His love teaches us to bring our illusory self-image to the truth of what weare: God's holy Son.Jesus continues with the same thought:*(2:1) "Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we haveplaced upon the holy altar where God's gifts belong."*Jesus cannot give us God's gifts of love until we first give him ours of sin,guilt, and specialness. We exchange the gifts we made for the love he holds outto us. He cannot take them from our hands, for it is our responsibility to givethem to him. That is why forgiveness is not something we do, anymore thanforgiveness is something that Jesus does; we do it together. This means we mustbring to him -- in the language again of the closing pages of the text -- our"secret sins and hidden hates" (T-31.VIII.9:2). Another lovely passage from "TheGifts of God" express Jesus' call:"Open your hands, and give all things to me that you have held against yourholiness and kept as slander on the Son of God ... Give me these worthlessthings the instant that you see them through my eyes and understand their cost... I take them from you gladly, laying them beside the gifts of God that He hasplaced upon the altar to His Son. And these I give to you to take the place ofthose you give to me in mercy on yourself. These are the gifts I ask, and onlythese. For as you lay them by you, reach to me, and I can come as savior then toyou. The gifts of God are in my hands, to give to anyone who would exchange theworld for Heaven. You need only call my name ask me to accept the gift of painfrom willing hands that would be laid in mine. ... In my hands is everything youwant and need and hoped to find among the shabby toys of earth. I take them allfrom you and they are gone. And shining in the place where once they stood thereis a gateway to another world through which we enter in the Name of God." (TheGifts of God, pp.118,119).The remainder of this paragraph is an elaboration of God's gifts to us, held forus by Jesus' love:*(3:1) "Therefore, we choose to have them now, and know, in choosing them inplace of what we made, we but unite our will with what God wills, and recognizethe same as being one."*Jesus again emphasizes the role of our minds to choose. The focus is not on thewonderful gifts, for these mean nothing if we do not know we can choose them.The purpose of A Course in Miracles is to help us choose these gifts by choosingagainst the ego's shabby substitutes. The words describing these gifts arelovely and comforting, but they are of no help as long as we are unaware of ourfear. Jesus thus reminds us that we are afraid of love, and he teaches that itis the attraction to this fear, born of the need to preserve our individuality,that keeps the gifts of God separate from us. Once aware of this decision to beafraid, we can undo our mistake and choose again, reflecting the recognitionthat our will and God's are one.*(3:2-4) "Our longer practice periods today, the hourly five minutes given truthfor your salvation, should begin with this:I seek but what belongs to me in truth, And joy and peace are my inheritance.<Then lay aside the conflicts of the world that offer other gifts and other goalsmade of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world ofdreams."*Remember, Jesus does not say he will take our conflicts away from us. Rather,we have to lay them aside, which means looking at our need to be in conflict andpain: guilty, angry, and depressed. These are the ego's secret attraction, andit is our responsibility to choose attractions different from those ofspecialness, the "other gifts" offered by the world. Now we choose to practicethe exercises that will restore to our awareness the true gifts of joy and peace-- our inheritance -- that happily wait for us.Jesus continues by reiterating the same point.*(4:1) "All this we lay aside, and seek instead that which is truly ours, as weask to recognize what God has given us."*The only way I meaningfully ask for help in recognizing God's loving gift is tosay I am willing to let go of the specialness I put in its stead. That is whatJesus means later in the workbook when he speaks about the peace of God: "To saythese words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything." (W.PI.185.1.1-2)If I am serious about wanting to be with Jesus and his love, I must be willingto set aside the demands of my specialness. Or certainly, as an early step, Ihave to be willing to recognize these <are> the demands of specialness, thepurpose of which is to keep Heaven's love away. This ensures I do not deceivemyself by thinking I really want Jesus' love. I could say to him, for example:"I do not want your love yet; perhaps tomorrow, but for now I want myspecialness. It comes first." At least that is an honest statement, which meansthere will be no guilt. Without guilt I leave open my mind's door for Jesus toenter and help me. He says the same thing in the next sentence.*(4:2) "We clear a holy place within our minds before His altar, where His giftsof peace and joy are welcome, and to which we come to find what has been givenus by Him."*The altar is our minds. Whenever Jesus uses this term, think of it as thedecision maker, which can choose to have its mind be an altar that drips withblood -- when it chooses to worship the ego -- or one the radiates the love andlight of God when it chooses Jesus as its teacher. He is thus asking us to clearour minds by bringing to him the clutter -- our belief in sin, guilt, secrecy,and shame -- so that the light of his love can shine it away. Thus do our minds,cleansed of sin, become the holy reminders of the joyous light of Christ that isour true and only reality:"The holiest of altars is set where once sin was 'believed to be. And heredoes every light of Heaven come, to be rekindled and increased in joy. For hereis what was lost restored to them, and all their radiance made whole again."(T.26.IV.3.6).*(4:3-4) "We come in confidence today, aware that what belongs to us in truth iswhat He gives. And we would wish for nothing else, for nothing else belongs tous in truth."*Jesus tells us once again that in order to have the gifts of God and to acceptHis love and truth, we need to let go of everything else we have wished for. Wecannot have love without letting go of our investment in fear, suffering, andspecialness.Jesus closes the lesson repeating what he has already said six, seven, and eighttimes in this very short lesson:*(5:1-2) "So do we clear the way for Him today by simply recognizing that HisWill is done already, and that joy and peace belong to us as His eternal gifts."*We have the power to lose sight of these gifts by being attracted to be thegift of specialness. Yet the power is also ours to clear from our minds theego's impediments to the truth. Thus we dedicated this day to the practice thatwill bring the time ever closer when the irrevocable choice for peace and joywill be made.*(5:3-5) "We will not let ourselves lose sight of them between the times we cometo seek for them where He has laid them. This reminder will we bring to mind asoften as we can:I seek but what belongs to me in truth. God's gifts of joy and peace are all I want.<"*When we are tempted during the day not to be joyful and peaceful, rather thanblame ourselves or anyone else, we should realize instead: "I am attracted tofeeling upset because I do not want to remember the glorious truth of Who I am.The glitter of my individuality is the cause of my distress." When we look atthe situation clearly, it will make no sense at all. The original choice to bean individual, the ego told us, was to make us happy, yet we now see that theego's thought system did not make us happy at all; quite the contrary. Our eyesopen, we see the causal connection between our decision and our misery: feelingupset is the <effect>, and the belief that being on our own would make happy isthe <cause>. We are aware at last that our choice for the ego reflected theinsane thinking that prevented us from looking for the other Teacher. Thus weare grateful for having been wrong and learning there is One Who is right, as wegladly claim the gifts of joy and peace that are our true inheritance as God'sSon.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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Lesson 103. God, being Love, is also happiness.
Lesson 103. God, being Love, is also happiness.(1) Happiness is an attribute of love. It cannot be apart from it. Nor can it beexperienced where love is not. Love has no limits, being everywhere. Andtherefore joy is everywhere as well. Yet can the mind deny that this is so,believing there are gaps in love where sin can enter, bringing pain instead ofjoy. This strange belief would limit happiness by redefining love as limited,and introducing opposition in what has no limit and no opposite.(2) Fear is associated then with love, and its results become the heritage ofminds that think what they have made is real. These images, with no reality intruth, bear witness to the fear of God, forgetting being Love, He must be joy.This basic error we will try again to bring to truth today, and teach ourselves:God, being Love, is also happiness. To fear Him is to be afraid of joy.<Begin your periods of practicing today with this association, which corrects thefalse belief that God is fear. It also emphasizes happiness belongs to you,because of what He is.(3) Allow this one correction to be placed within your mind each waking hourtoday. Then welcome all the happiness it brings as truth replaces fear, and joybecomes what you expect to take the place of pain. God, being Love, it will begiven you. Bolster this expectation frequently throughout the day, and quiet allyour fears with this assurance, kind and wholly true:God, being Love, is also happiness. And it is happiness I seek today.I cannot fail, because I seek the truth.<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries ofbooks, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which canbe purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 103. "God, being Love, is also happiness."*This lesson continues the theme of happiness, but Jesus focuses as well onfear, love's opposite. We need to undo our investment in fear before we canexperience love and find the happiness we seek.*(1:1-3) "Happiness is an attribute of love. It cannot be apart from it. Nor canit be experienced where love is not."*Love is not of this world, nor is it of the body. Indeed, the world was made toexclude God and His Son:"The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what isfear except love's absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where Godcould enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him." (W-pII.3.2:1-4)And the body to be a love's limitation:"It is only the awareness of the body that makes love seem limited. For thebody is a limit on love. The belief in limited love was its origin, and it wasmade to limit the unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical, for itwas made to limit you." (T-18.VIII.1:1-4).It is therefore not in the body nor the world that we would find love andhappiness. In these opening sentences of the lesson, Jesus has undone the ego'sthought system of specialness, which holds that love is possible here, and canalways be bought at a price. This does not mean you should be guilty whenattracted to things of the world and the body, seeing them as sources ofhappiness or peace. However, Jesus is asking that you step back with him fromthe world, and realize that in the end these things will not give you what youwant. They may give you what you <think> you want, but not what you <really>want. This is where honesty enters and is so important to our progress in ACourse in Miracles. We need to be open about having been wrong in thespecialness we thought we wanted and devoted our lives to acquiring.*(1:4-6) "Love has no limits, being everywhere. And therefore joy is everywhereas well. Yet can the mind deny that this is so, believing there are gaps in lovewhere sin can enter, bringing pain instead of joy."*Within the dream, the mind is capable of making illusions, in which thedecision-maker chooses the ego, and makes separation and individuality real.That is the gap, where the ego places sin. The world becomes the means ofavoiding the pain of returning to the mind and looking at that gap, for we aretold that love and happiness can be found <here>, if only we do not look<there>. The ego tells us further that going within will lead to the certaindestruction of ourselves as punishment for our sin. This fear gives birth to thespecialness that says there is a gap between you and me, for we are different.Whether we speak of a person, animal, plant, object, money, or an addictivesubstance, specialness teaches there is something in the world that can make ushappy. God's Will, Jesus' love, the Holy Spirit's forgiveness, will not: butthis special person or thing can. Thus is the apparent gap between us filled.Yet all the while, the true gap in our minds -- between ourselves and God --remains unhealed.*(1:7) "This strange belief would limit happiness by redefining love as limited,and introducing opposition in what has no limit and no opposite."*The ego's strange notion of love -- special love -- is that it is limited tocertain people, places, things, and events, but it is not available to all; onlyfor those special ones who meet my needs. The ego tells me you have what I lack,which I need to be complete -- the definition of special love -- and the reasonyou have <special something> and I do not, is that you took it from me. Thus youand I exist in a state of perpetual opposition -- the principle of <one or theother>. The aforementioned fourth law of chaos summarizes the situation:"The ego values only what it takes. This leads to the <fourth> law of chaos,which, if the others are accepted, must be true. This seeming law is the beliefyou have what you have taken. By this, another's loss becomes your gain ...enemies do not give willingly to one another, nor would they seek to share thethings they value. And what your enemies would keep from you must be worthhaving, because they keep it hidden from your sight.""All of the mechanisms of madness are seen emerging here: The "enemy" madestrong by keeping hidden the valuable inheritance that should be yours; yourjustified position and attack for what has been withheld; and the inevitableloss the enemy must suffer to save yourself." (T.23.II.9.1-4, 6-10:1)Thus we are continually in conflict with each other and with the world. I needalways get the <special something> from outside, which is lacking in me and whatI secretly believe is mine. Moreover, I know you will not give it to me unless Ipay for it, which means you and I, again, are in a perpetual state of war: I,unfairly, have to pay you for what I secretly believe belongs to me; and youbelieve the same injustice exists for you. When this insane bargain is enactedwith God, it takes the form of paying God back for our sin, achieving salvationthrough a life of suffering we believe He demands of us.*(2:1) "Fear is associated then with love, and its results become the heritage ofminds that think what they have made is real."*Fear is associated with love because we have come to believe that if we do notgive God what He asks of us, we will be destroyed. To preserve the ego's insanethinking is one reason the Bible was written, for it speaks in no uncertainterms of the ego God's demands. Indeed, it is impossible to read it and not comeaway feeling terrified. We are told in any number of ways that if we cross God'simaginary line in the sand, becoming goats instead of sheep, we will bedestroyed (cf. Matthew 25:31-46). How, then, could fear not be associated withlove?Fear leads to the multitudinous painful effects of our lives, all of which areexperienced as palpably real. Thus is our existence as individuals reinforced,and everything we have made real here as well. Fear has become reality becauseour sin has become reality. Sin demands punishment; and punishment means ourfear has been justified. Our fear-laden and vulnerable bodies but witness to thereality of this insanity.*(2:2) "These images, with no reality in truth, bear witness to the fear of God,forgetting being Love, He must be joy."*If we are honest with ourselves, we would realize our lives are not happy.Whatever joys we think we can steal from others, or from things in the world,never last. This should tell us, if we are truly open-minded, that this life ofalternating joy and pain, with the greater emphasis placed on the latter, cannotbe of God because His joy is eternal. It does not wax and wane with thevicissitudes of the world.*(2:3-5) "This basic error we will try again to bring to truth today, and teachourselves:God, being Love, is also happiness. To fear Him is to be afraid of joy.<"*Jesus says to us: "Don't tell me you love God. If you did, you would still bewith Him. If you think you are here in this world, it is because of fear." It iscrucial to understand, practice, and live A Course in Miracles that we be honestwith Jesus about what is going on inside us, and cease pretending we can keepsecrets from him. Since he is within us, we are only keeping secrets fromourselves. This will never work, and certainly will not make us happy. That iswhy he urges us, in words we have already noted:"Watch carefully and see what it is you are really asking for. Be veryhonest with yourself in this, for we must hide nothing from each other."(T.4.III.8.1)"Think honestly what you have thought that God would not have thought, andwhat you have not thought that God would have you think. Search sincerely forwhat you have done and left undone accordingly, and then change your mind tothink with God's. This may seem hard to do, but it is much easier than trying tothink against it."(T.4.IV.2.4).The process of bringing our dark secrets of guilt and fear to Jesus'light-filled forgiveness is how we learn that. "God, being Love, is alsohappiness.*(3:1) "Allow this one correction to be placed within your mind each waking hourtoday."*The correction, through Jesus' presence, is already in our minds, but we mustchoose to allow it into awareness. Our guilt, sin, terror, secrecy, andspecialness are ways of preventing this loving thought from being remembered.The little willingness to bring these secret thoughts to him -- at least once anhour -- is all he asks of us.*(3:2-7) "Then welcome all the happiness it brings as truth replaces fear, andjoy becomes what you expect to take the place of pain. God, being Love, it willbe given you. Bolster this expectation frequently throughout the day, and quietall your fears with this assurance, kind and wholly true:God, being Love, is also happiness. And it is happiness I seek today.I cannot fail, because I seek the truth.<"*The point I make over and over again -- because Jesus makes it over and overagain -- is that these lessons mean nothing if you do not apply them. Throughoutthe day you must be aware of your fear -- in other contexts, guilt, unhappiness,or pain -- for it is that moment of awareness you ask for help. Again, do notshout down discomfort by repeating the title of the lesson. Instead, bring yourdiscomfort to the one who gave you these words, and let him remind you it isGod's Love you want, for you recognize at last the shabby substitute you hadchosen in its stead; a substitute you no longer want to take the place of truehappiness and joy.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 102. I share God's Will for happiness for me.
Lesson 102. I share God's Will for happiness for me.(1) You do not want to suffer. You may think it buys you something, and maystill believe a little that it buys you what you want. Yet this belief is surelyshaken now, at least enough to let you question it, and to suspect it reallymakes no sense. It has not gone as yet, but lacks the roots that once secured ittightly to the dark and hidden secret places of your mind.(2) Today we try to loose its weakened hold still further, and to realize thatpain is purposeless, without a cause and with no power to accomplish anything.It cannot purchase anything at all. It offers nothing, and does not exist. Andeverything you think it offers you is lacking in existence, like itself. Youhave been slave to nothing. Be you free today to join the happy Will of God.(3) For several days we will continue to devote our periods of practicing toexercises planned to help you reach the happiness God's Will has placed in you.Here is your home, and here your safety is. Here is your peace, and here thereis no fear. Here is salvation. Here is rest at last.(4) Begin your practice periods today with this acceptance of God's Will foryou:I share God's Will for happiness for me, and I accept it as my function now.<Then seek this function deep within your mind, for it is there, awaiting butyour choice. You cannot fail to find it when you learn it is your choice,and that you share God's Will.(5) Be happy, for your only function here is happiness. You have no need to beless loving to God's Son than He Whose Love created him as loving as Himself.Besides these hourly five-minute rests, pause frequently today, to tell yourselfthat you have now accepted happiness as your one function. And be sure that youare joining with God's Will in doing this.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries ofbooks, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which canbe purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 102. "I share God's Will for happiness for me."*Continuing from the previous lesson, Jesus specifically addresses the idea ofsuffering.*(1:1) "You do not want to suffer."*This is obviously not the case, because from beginning to end, our lives arefilled with suffering. If it is our dream, whom can we blame but ourselves, thedreamer of suffering? Therefore, a statement like this is Jesus' appeal tochange our minds. As always, the <you> he addresses is the decision maker, andhe is really saying to us: "Yes, you do want to suffer, but you can learn itdoes not pay you. I therefore remind you to let go of your guilt and belief insin." As he says later: "Come with wholly empty hands unto your God."(W.PI.189.7.5). In that sense, then, we will not suffer, for without guilt therecan be no suffering.*(1:2) "You may think it buys you something, and may still believe a little thatit buys you what you want."*Suffering unfortunately buys us a great deal, which we can see three ways:1) Suffering repays God so He will not kill us, seeing us already indulging in alittle form of death (T-27.I.4:8). In other words, we tell God He need notconcern Himself with our punishment, for we are taking care of the matterourselves. Thus we hope successfully to bargain with our Judge, escaping with aneasier sentence: ..."Illness is a form of magic. It might be better to say that it is a form ofmagical solution. The ego believes that by punishing itself it will mitigate thepunishment of God." (T.5.V.5.4-6).2) Suffering proves that others have done this to us; we are the victims andthey are the victimizers. This holds whether we are speaking of a person weaccuse of hurting us, or microorganism that makes us sick. Regardless of theform, the enemy is external to our minds, deserving of punishment and defeat:"But every pain you suffer do you see as proof that he is guilty of attack.Thus would you make yourself to be the sign that he has lost his innocence, andneed but look on you to realize that he has been condemned. And what to you hasbeen unfair will come to him in righteousness. The unjust vengeance that yousuffer now belongs to him, and when it rests on him are you set free."(T.27.I.2.2-5).3) Suffering proves we are bodies, and if so, we are right, and God and Jesusare wrong. Indeed, if we are right, God does not exist at all:"Sickness is an election; a decision. ... a method, conceived in madness,for placing God's Son on his Father's throne. God is seen as outside, fierce andpowerful, eager to keep all power for Himself. Only by His death can He beconquered by His Son." (M.5.I.1.4;7-9)."Pain is a sign illusions reign in place of truth. It demonstrates God isdenied, confused with fear, perceived as mad, and seen as traitor to Himself. IfGod is real, there is no pain. If pain is real, there is no God. For vengeanceis not part of love. And fear, denying love and using pain to prove that God isdead, has shown that death is victor over life. The body is the Son of God,corruptible in death, as mortal as the Father he has slain."(W.PI.190.3.1).As long as we believe sickness and suffering bring us the innocence and life wewant, we will have no motivation to let them go.*(1:3) "Yet this belief is surely shaken now, at least enough to let you questionit, and to suspect it really makes no sense."*Jesus is not asking us to let go of our thought system, but only to begin theprocess of questioning it. Is it really better for me to hold on to these"secret sins and hidden hates" (T.31.VIII.9.2) to maintain these grievances? toinsist that the fulfillment of my specialness needs -- whether with a person,object, or substance -- will get me what I want? After a while, none of thethings of the world gives us what we want, or truly make us happy. We think theybring relief from pain of our guilt, but all they lead to is guilt's increase,thus revealing the ego's purpose from the beginning.*(1:4) "It has not gone as yet, but lacks the roots that once secured it tightlyto the dark and hidden secret places of your mind."*Jesus is telling us: "I am not expecting you to be free from suffering. Indeed,I know it has not gone yet. However I am asking you to be open, allowing me atleast to help you question the validity of your way of life."The word <secret> here connotes guilt, which screams: "Keep your sin a secret,and do not look." The secret places of our minds are where we hold our guilt inshrouded vaults that bar the light of God from ever entering:"And in these shrouded vaults are all his sins and yours preserved and keptin darkness, where they cannot be perceived as errors, which the light wouldsurely show." (T.31.V.6.6).The prose poem Helen took down, "The Gifts of God," closes with a stirring callfrom God Himself to open these vaults, behind which His Love was kept secret:"Open the door before the hidden place, and let Me blaze upon a world madeglad in sudden ecstasy." (The Gifts of God, p.128).At the same place Jesus tells us he knows we are holding on to suffering, hesays: "By virtue of the fact you have come this far with me, we have alreadytaken a large step towards questioning your thought system. Therefore, do notsay you cannot let it go, because you are already well along in the process."Yet when we hit up against the stone wall of sin and guilt, we say A Course inMiracles is impossible to learn and we cannot do it. This, then, becomes ourjustification for returning to our old "friends," special relationships.However, Jesus does not buy it, and reiterates his message to us: "You alreadyknow more than you think, for you realize that specialness does not work. Youstill may hold on to the need to suffer, but another part of you has grownsufficiently strong that it can at least step back and question with me what youare doing." *(2:1) "Today we try to loose its weakened hold still further, and to realizethat pain is purposeless, without a cause and with no power to accomplishanything."*We return to the <cause-and-effect> principle. "Pain is purposeless" because wenow realize our purpose -- to keep separated from God -- makes no sense. Oncethe purpose is gone, it can have no effects. Thus is pain weakened, andeventually negated.*(2:2) "It cannot purchase anything at all. It offers nothing, and does notexist."*The ego tells us our pain purchases a great deal -- atonement and salvation --and Jesus is hoping we recognize that pain and suffering purchase nothing. Theyonly make us upset and more filled with pain. Clearly, the more we suffer, themore our need for salvation. The problem is that we often end up looking in thewrong place: in expiation, punishment, and pain.*(2:3-6) "And everything you think it offers you is lacking in existence, likeitself. You have been slave to nothing. Be you free today to join the happy Willof God."*The problem with accepting this statement is that if pain does not exist,neither does my body that suffers it, nor the thought of individuality my bodyrepresents. The fear of losing this self perpetuates our clinging to verymaladaptive defenses, such as pain and suffering.There is the truth nothing holds us back from joining "the happy Will of God,"symbolized for us by Jesus. We have been "slave to nothing," meaning we havebeen enslaved by our wrong decision, which had no effects. Without effects,there can be no cause; and without a cause, pain does not exist.*(3:1) "For several days we will continue to devote our periods of practicing toexercises planned to help you reach the happiness God's Will has placed in you."*These exercises help us reach the goal of happiness by helping undo theinterferences -- pain, guilt, and specialness -- we placed between ourselves andthe goal's attainment. *(3:2-5) "Here is your home, and here your safety is. Here is your peace, andhere there is no fear. Here is salvation. Here is rest at last."*<Here> represents the right mind where we join with Jesus, and happily lookwith him at the ego thought system and question it. We look without judgment andwithout guilt; <but we look>. In other words, we undo the veils that hold ourguilt in secret. Remember, secrecy and guilt are the same, for guilt cannotabide in the light of our awareness. When brought to the guiltlessness held forus by the Holy Spirit, the guilt can no longer be protected by the darksentinels of defense. And so it disappears:"The quiet light in which the Holy Spirit dwells within you is merelyperfect openness, in which nothing is hidden and therefore nothing is fearful... There is no darkness that the light of love will not dispel, unless it isconcealed from love's beneficence. What is kept apart from love cannot share itshealing power, because it has been separated off and kept in darkness. Thesentinels of darkness watch over it carefully, and you who made these guardiansof illusion out of nothing are now afraid of them ... But let them go, and whatwas fearful will be so no longer. Without protection of obscurity only the lightof love remains, for only this has meaning and can live in light. Everythingelse must disappear."(T-14.VI.2:1,3-5;3:6-8).With the illusions of defense gone, happiness comes at last to replace ourpain.*(4) "Begin your practice periods today with this acceptance of God's Will foryou:I share God's Will for happiness for me, and I accept it as my function now.<Then seek this function deep within your mind, for it is there, awaiting butyour choice. You cannot fail to find it when you learn it is your choice,and that you share God's Will."*We pledge ourselves to remember as often as we can that our function offorgiveness awaits our decision, for only there can we find the happiness wedeserve as God's Son. Suffering is not God's Will, but its distortion. However,coming simply from our mistaken choice, the pain is easily corrected.*(5) "Be happy, for your only function here is happiness. You have no need to beless loving to God's Son than He Whose Love created him as loving as Himself.Besides these hourly five-minute rests, pause frequently today, to tell yourselfthat you have now accepted happiness as your one function. And be sure that youare joining with God's Will in doing this."*We do deserve to be happy, and that is what we need to remember throughout theday. We also need not to forget that happiness must be shared with everyone,otherwise it cannot express the Oneness of God's Son is one, so must hishappiness be one as well.*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 102. "I share God's Will for happiness for me."*Continuing from the previous lesson, Jesus specifically addresses the idea ofsuffering.*(1:1) "You do not want to suffer."*This is obviously not the case, because from beginning to end, our lives arefilled with suffering. If it is our dream, whom can we blame but ourselves, thedreamer of suffering? Therefore, a statement like this is Jesus' appeal tochange our minds. As always, the <you> he addresses is the decision maker, andhe is really saying to us: "Yes, you do want to suffer, but you can learn itdoes not pay you. I therefore remind you to let go of your guilt and belief insin." As he says later: "Come with wholly empty hands unto your God."(W.PI.189.7.5). In that sense, then, we will not suffer, for without guilt therecan be no suffering.*(1:2) "You may think it buys you something, and may still believe a little thatit buys you what you want."*Suffering unfortunately buys us a great deal, which we can see three ways:1) Suffering repays God so He will not kill us, seeing us already indulging in alittle form of death (T-27.I.4:8). In other words, we tell God He need notconcern Himself with our punishment, for we are taking care of the matterourselves. Thus we hope successfully to bargain with our Judge, escaping with aneasier sentence: ..."Illness is a form of magic. It might be better to say that it is a form ofmagical solution. The ego believes that by punishing itself it will mitigate thepunishment of God." (T.5.V.5.4-6).2) Suffering proves that others have done this to us; we are the victims andthey are the victimizers. This holds whether we are speaking of a person weaccuse of hurting us, or microorganism that makes us sick. Regardless of theform, the enemy is external to our minds, deserving of punishment and defeat:"But every pain you suffer do you see as proof that he is guilty of attack.Thus would you make yourself to be the sign that he has lost his innocence, andneed but look on you to realize that he has been condemned. And what to you hasbeen unfair will come to him in righteousness. The unjust vengeance that yousuffer now belongs to him, and when it rests on him are you set free."(T.27.I.2.2-5).3) Suffering proves we are bodies, and if so, we are right, and God and Jesusare wrong. Indeed, if we are right, God does not exist at all:"Sickness is an election; a decision. ... a method, conceived in madness,for placing God's Son on his Father's throne. God is seen as outside, fierce andpowerful, eager to keep all power for Himself. Only by His death can He beconquered by His Son." (M.5.I.1.4;7-9)."Pain is a sign illusions reign in place of truth. It demonstrates God isdenied, confused with fear, perceived as mad, and seen as traitor to Himself. IfGod is real, there is no pain. If pain is real, there is no God. For vengeanceis not part of love. And fear, denying love and using pain to prove that God isdead, has shown that death is victor over life. The body is the Son of God,corruptible in death, as mortal as the Father he has slain."(W.PI.190.3.1).As long as we believe sickness and suffering bring us the innocence and life wewant, we will have no motivation to let them go.*(1:3) "Yet this belief is surely shaken now, at least enough to let you questionit, and to suspect it really makes no sense."*Jesus is not asking us to let go of our thought system, but only to begin theprocess of questioning it. Is it really better for me to hold on to these"secret sins and hidden hates" (T.31.VIII.9.2) to maintain these grievances? toinsist that the fulfillment of my specialness needs -- whether with a person,object, or substance -- will get me what I want? After a while, none of thethings of the world gives us what we want, or truly make us happy. We think theybring relief from pain of our guilt, but all they lead to is guilt's increase,thus revealing the ego's purpose from the beginning.*(1:4) "It has not gone as yet, but lacks the roots that once secured it tightlyto the dark and hidden secret places of your mind."*Jesus is telling us: "I am not expecting you to be free from suffering. Indeed,I know it has not gone yet. However I am asking you to be open, allowing me atleast to help you question the validity of your way of life."The word <secret> here connotes guilt, which screams: "Keep your sin a secret,and do not look." The secret places of our minds are where we hold our guilt inshrouded vaults that bar the light of God from ever entering:"And in these shrouded vaults are all his sins and yours preserved and keptin darkness, where they cannot be perceived as errors, which the light wouldsurely show." (T.31.V.6.6).The prose poem Helen took down, "The Gifts of God," closes with a stirring callfrom God Himself to open these vaults, behind which His Love was kept secret:"Open the door before the hidden place, and let Me blaze upon a world madeglad in sudden ecstasy." (The Gifts of God, p.128).At the same place Jesus tells us he knows we are holding on to suffering, hesays: "By virtue of the fact you have come this far with me, we have alreadytaken a large step towards questioning your thought system. Therefore, do notsay you cannot let it go, because you are already well along in the process."Yet when we hit up against the stone wall of sin and guilt, we say A Course inMiracles is impossible to learn and we cannot do it. This, then, becomes ourjustification for returning to our old "friends," special relationships.However, Jesus does not buy it, and reiterates his message to us: "You alreadyknow more than you think, for you realize that specialness does not work. Youstill may hold on to the need to suffer, but another part of you has grownsufficiently strong that it can at least step back and question with me what youare doing." *(2:1) "Today we try to loose its weakened hold still further, and to realizethat pain is purposeless, without a cause and with no power to accomplishanything."*We return to the <cause-and-effect> principle. "Pain is purposeless" because wenow realize our purpose -- to keep separated from God -- makes no sense. Oncethe purpose is gone, it can have no effects. Thus is pain weakened, andeventually negated.*(2:2) "It cannot purchase anything at all. It offers nothing, and does notexist."*The ego tells us our pain purchases a great deal -- atonement and salvation --and Jesus is hoping we recognize that pain and suffering purchase nothing. Theyonly make us upset and more filled with pain. Clearly, the more we suffer, themore our need for salvation. The problem is that we often end up looking in thewrong place: in expiation, punishment, and pain.*(2:3-6) "And everything you think it offers you is lacking in existence, likeitself. You have been slave to nothing. Be you free today to join the happy Willof God."*The problem with accepting this statement is that if pain does not exist,neither does my body that suffers it, nor the thought of individuality my bodyrepresents. The fear of losing this self perpetuates our clinging to verymaladaptive defenses, such as pain and suffering.There is the truth nothing holds us back from joining "the happy Will of God,"symbolized for us by Jesus. We have been "slave to nothing," meaning we havebeen enslaved by our wrong decision, which had no effects. Without effects,there can be no cause; and without a cause, pain does not exist.*(3:1) "For several days we will continue to devote our periods of practicing toexercises planned to help you reach the happiness God's Will has placed in you."*These exercises help us reach the goal of happiness by helping undo theinterferences -- pain, guilt, and specialness -- we placed between ourselves andthe goal's attainment. *(3:2-5) "Here is your home, and here your safety is. Here is your peace, andhere there is no fear. Here is salvation. Here is rest at last."*<Here> represents the right mind where we join with Jesus, and happily lookwith him at the ego thought system and question it. We look without judgment andwithout guilt; <but we look>. In other words, we undo the veils that hold ourguilt in secret. Remember, secrecy and guilt are the same, for guilt cannotabide in the light of our awareness. When brought to the guiltlessness held forus by the Holy Spirit, the guilt can no longer be protected by the darksentinels of defense. And so it disappears:"The quiet light in which the Holy Spirit dwells within you is merelyperfect openness, in which nothing is hidden and therefore nothing is fearful... There is no darkness that the light of love will not dispel, unless it isconcealed from love's beneficence. What is kept apart from love cannot share itshealing power, because it has been separated off and kept in darkness. Thesentinels of darkness watch over it carefully, and you who made these guardiansof illusion out of nothing are now afraid of them ... But let them go, and whatwas fearful will be so no longer. Without protection of obscurity only the lightof love remains, for only this has meaning and can live in light. Everythingelse must disappear."(T-14.VI.2:1,3-5;3:6-8).With the illusions of defense gone, happiness comes at last to replace ourpain.*(4) "Begin your practice periods today with this acceptance of God's Will foryou:I share God's Will for happiness for me, and I accept it as my function now.<Then seek this function deep within your mind, for it is there, awaiting butyour choice. You cannot fail to find it when you learn it is your choice,and that you share God's Will."*We pledge ourselves to remember as often as we can that our function offorgiveness awaits our decision, for only there can we find the happiness wedeserve as God's Son. Suffering is not God's Will, but its distortion. However,coming simply from our mistaken choice, the pain is easily corrected.*(5) "Be happy, for your only function here is happiness. You have no need to beless loving to God's Son than He Whose Love created him as loving as Himself.Besides these hourly five-minute rests, pause frequently today, to tell yourselfthat you have now accepted happiness as your one function. And be sure that youare joining with God's Will in doing this."*We do deserve to be happy, and that is what we need to remember throughout theday. We also need not to forget that happiness must be shared with everyone,otherwise it cannot express the Oneness of God's Son is one, so must hishappiness be one as well.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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