Daily Lesson

  

L e s s o n  118

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< GUIDANCE from ELDER BROTHER >

 

 NOTE: This is LEAP YEAR which causes there to be 366 days in the year. CIMS repeated Lesson 59 for FEBRUARY 29 so that the lessons would still coincide with other years and students could continue to use the perpetual ACIM Calendars. Some ACIM groups like Circle of Atonement have also done this and some ACIM groups like Foundation for Inner Peace are repeating Lesson 365 instead. When Lesson 365 will be repeated then the lesson for today will be one day ahead. 

     ~ Original Handscript of ACIM

Previous Lessons 

    REVIEW III

  

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Voice & Music by CIMS SonShip Radio  

 

 *IAMBIC PENTAMETER         

   Our third review begins today. We will
   review two of the last twenty ideas
   each day, until we have reviewed them all.
   We will observe a special format for
   these practice periods, which you are urged
   to follow just as closely as you can.
   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. 

   But learning will be hampered when you skip
   a practice period because you are
   unwilling to devote the time to it
   which 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 which
   are poorly suited to your practicing
   from those which you establish to uphold
   the camouflage for your unwillingness. 

   Those practice periods which 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. 

   The format you should use for these reviews
   is this: Devote five minutes twice a day,
   or longer if you would prefer, to
   considering the thoughts that are assigned.
   Read over the ideas and comments which
   are written first in 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. 

   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 start, and then lean back in quiet faith,
   and let the mind employ the thoughts you gave
   as they were given you for it to use. 

   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. 

   We emphasize the benefits to you
   if you devote the first five minutes of
   the day to your review and also give
   the last five minutes of your waking day
   to it. 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. 

   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 it the opportunity to prove
   how great are its potential gifts to you. 

   Here is another chance to use it well.
   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, then 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.
   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 it and then 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. 

   Each day's review assignment 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
   that we begin again on solid ground
   with firmer footsteps and with stronger faith. 

   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.

   ~ Original Handscript of ACIM

ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 

Lesson 118
Review of Lesson 105 and Lesson 106

Sarah's Commentary:        

We have made many substitutes for God's happiness and peace. It is not easy to let go of things outside of ourselves that we are convinced are important to our happiness. The world itself was made as a substitute for God's love. We valued our uniqueness and our specialness more than His love. And so we continue to make substitutes which ultimately leave us feeling empty. God's gifts of peace and joy we have right now, at this very moment. Yet we want more. Isn't that interesting? We really believe that there is more than everything! Our wholeness is dismissed and we lose sight of our divine identity by our desire for substitutes. These are things outside of ourselves which we think we need in order to be happy. But when we get them, we realize that they still leave us feeling empty. They are not the real thing.

T. 29.VII "Seek Not Outside Yourself" where Jesus says that each time we seek outside of ourselves, it will fail "and you will weep each time an idol falls."  Idols are substitutes for love. The only way we can be content and truly know peace is by remembering the truth of our creation. That is true happiness. "All your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found."  (T.29.VII.1.7)

But we still don't believe that. We still think we know where our happiness lies and it is in the substitutes that we have decided are important to our lives. But it is not an easy thing for us to give up on our belief that there is something here in this world that will bring us the happiness we seek. In fact, Jesus tells us that "no one who comes here but must still have hope, some lingering illusion, or some dream that there is something outside of himself that will bring happiness and peace to him." (T. 29. III)  So that essentially applies to all of us.

He says that as long as we believe that we are what we are not we will "seek out a thousand idols, and to seek beyond them for a thousand more." (T.29.VII.3.1) Isn't that what our lives are about? The relationship, the job, the house, the career, the material things, recognition, power, pleasure, etc, are all idols. Not only do we think our happiness lies in getting everything we want but when our external world does not measure up to our expectations, it can throw us into feelings of sadness, anger and depression. We forget that these events are all there to allow us to uncover opportunities to look at places in ourselves where healing is called for. Thus this world of separation can become an essential classroom for looking honestly at how we are using these idols to cover over what lies beneath.

But how do we let go of all of that we have substituted for the love that we are? How do we connect with the peace and joy that we are already? It does not mean that we don't continue to pursue our activities in the world but it does mean we no longer take them so seriously as the answer for our fulfillment.   When we have expectations of how things should go in the world and they don't go the way we had hoped, it puts us in a tailspin; when things we value  are lost, stolen, broken we can get very upset and depressed. When things do not work out according to plans we made, we can get very distraught. Being right about the way things should go, becomes much more important to us than recognizing that true happiness can only come from choosing to let go of our way. Yet with each step through the course, through forgiveness we learn to release the attachments to these substitutes for love. It is particularly startling to read that "whenever you attempt to reach a goal in which the body's betterment is cast as a major beneficiary, you try to bring about your death. For you believe that you can suffer lack, and lack is death."  (T.29.VII.4.1)

 We are not asked to give up anything in the world. There is nothing of value here to be given up. However, we are asked to look at our attachments and recognize that our happiness is not in any of these things. We need to see that there is a true source of happiness available to us by doing the forgiveness work so we can begin to experience the internal peace and joy that the course talks about. As this shift begins to happen we learn to trust it and recognize how much more satisfying and reliable it is than the shifting things of the world.

Eventually we will want to let go of everything in the world that we thought would bring us happiness and peace and realize that it can never be found there. It is generally a process but for some it has come in a moment. I think of Byron Katie or Eckhart Tolle who experienced an instant of awakening from this dream as a result of their state of deep despair from which came an instant of total surrender of the ego.   

When we determine on our own how things should be and what we need to make us happy, we are actually in agreement with the ego and relying on our own personal will. We are choosing to be in control. We plan and organize our day and determine what needs to happen in order for us to be happy. We think we know what is needed. We make lists, we dream dreams, we make plans, we hold expectations and when things don't go according to plan we have anger, anxiety, distress, grievances. The voice of the ego appears to us as incessant, loud, raucous, and relentless. Yet Jesus says that it is actually feeble because ultimately it carries no power of its own.   Let us today be willing to question this feeble voice and bring its ramblings to the truth. It does not define us. What it does do is block the mighty Voice for Truth which sings a song of love to us. We will not hear it as long as our own incessant chatter persists.

I had the experience of focusing on worry thoughts during the night. And then it became clear to me that it was my choice if I was to listen to that which was not the truth. Miracle principle 14 came to mind and with it the reminder that with conviction, we can choose to release thoughts that plague us that do not need to be held in the mind. And with that realization, my worry thoughts were dismissed.   Peace and a quiet happiness took their place. No matter how much we try to obliterate the peace with our crazy thoughts, it is always there simply waiting for our acknowledgement. After all, as this lesson reminds us, it is a mighty Voice that is always calling to us. Ours is the one that is feeble. And the mighty Voice has one message for us which assures us that "I am God's perfect Son." (W.PI.118.2.2) Surely that is the message that we would want to hear rather than our own feeble voice whispering constantly that we are not good enough, worthy enough, and can't get anything right.

The practice continues as before with time spent each morning and each evening with the lesson and letting related thoughts come to mind. These are already in the mind. We can allow them to come forward without effort. They are the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in our right mind where the truth resides. We hear this Voice by asking it to come and allowing the message that He wishes to give to be received. It is the Voice of Love, speaking and revealing what it wants to share with us. Try not to resist the message. Simply allow it. Allow yourself to be vulnerable by dropping inside and asking deeply. Don't get attached to when and how it should show up. Free your mind to let thoughts come as they will. Don't censor.

Again we apply the lesson to every concern, problem, situation, relationship which comes up during the day and try to remember the lesson on the hour with "God's peace and joy are mine."  On the half hour: "Let me be still and listen to the truth."

Love and blessings, Sarah

Quotes in this article are from Foundation for Inner Peace edition; To locate the same quotes in the 'Original Edition', use this link:  http://www.jcim.net/acim_us/Acim.php  
[Use 'Advanced Search' and Exact Phrase' option]   

A Course in Miracles   
TEXT  

Chapter TEN                

God and the Ego         

VII. Experience and Perception                                            

⁵⁹ It is impossible not to believe what you see, but it is equally impossible to see what you do not believe. Perceptions are built up on the basis of experience, and experience leads to beliefs. It is not until beliefs are fixed that perceptions stabilize. In effect, then, what you believe, you do see. That is what I meant when I said, "Blessed are ye who have not seen and still believe," for those who believe in the resurrection will see it. The resurrection is the complete triumph of Christ over the ego, not by attack but by transcendence. For Christ does rise above the ego and all its works and ascends to the Father and His Kingdom.

⁶⁰ Would you join in the resurrection or the crucifixion? Would you condemn your brothers or free them? Would you transcend your prison and ascend to the Father? For these questions are all the same and are answered together. There has been much confusion about what perception means because the same word is used both for awareness and for the interpretation of awareness. Yet you cannot be aware without interpretation, and what you perceive is your interpretation. This course is perfectly clear. You do not see it clearly because you are interpreting against it and therefore do not believe it. And if belief determines perception, you do not perceive what it means and therefore do not accept it.

⁶¹ Yet different experiences lead to different beliefs, [and with them, different perceptions. For perceptions are learned with beliefs,] and experience teaches. I am leading you to a new kind of experience, which you will become less and less willing to deny. Learning of Christ is easy, for to perceive with Him involves no strain at all. His perceptions are your natural awareness, and it is only distortions which you introduce that tire you. Let the Christ in you interpret for you, and do not try to limit what you see by narrow little beliefs which are unworthy of God's Son. For until Christ comes into His own, the Son of God will see himself as fatherless.

⁶² I am your resurrection and your life. You live in me because you live in God. And everyone lives in you, as you live in everyone. Can you, then, perceive unworthiness in a brother and not perceive it in yourself? And can you perceive it in yourself and not perceive it in God? Believe in the resurrection because it has been accomplished, and it has been accomplished in you. This is as true now as it will ever be, for the resurrection is the Will of God, which knows no time and no exceptions. But make no exceptions yourself, or you will not perceive what has been accomplished for you. For we ascend unto the Father together, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, for such is the nature of God's Son as His Father created him.

⁶³ Do not underestimate the power of the devotion of God's Son nor the power of the god he worships over him. For he places himself at the altar of his god, whether it be the god he made or the God who created him. That is why his slavery is as complete as his freedom, for he will obey only the god he accepts. The god of the crucifixion demands that he crucify and his worshipers obey. In his name they crucify themselves, believing that the power of the Son of God is born of sacrifice and pain. The God of the resurrection demands nothing, for He does not will to take away. He does not require obedience, for obedience implies submission. He would only have you learn your own will and follow it, not in the spirit of sacrifice and submission, but in the gladness of freedom.

⁶⁴ Resurrection must compel your allegiance gladly because it is the symbol of joy. Its whole compelling power lies in the fact that it represents what you want to be. The freedom to leave behind everything that hurts you and humbles you and frightens you cannot be thrust upon you, but it can be offered you through the grace of God. And you can accept it by His grace, for God is gracious to His Son, accepting him without question as His own. Who, then, is your own? The Father has given you all that is His, and He Himself is yours with them. Guard them in their resurrection, for otherwise you will not awake in God safely surrounded by what is yours forever.

⁶⁵ You will not find peace until you have removed the nails from the hands of God's Son and taken the last thorn from his forehead. The love of God surrounds His Son, whom the god of the crucifixion condemns. Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating that I live in you. For the undoing of the crucifixion of God's Son is the work of the redemption, in which everyone has a part of equal value. God does not judge His blameless Son. Having given Himself to him, how could it be otherwise?

⁶⁶ You have nailed yourself to a cross and placed a crown of thorns upon your own head. Yet you cannot crucify God's Son, for the Will of God cannot die. His Son has been redeemed from his own crucifixion, and you cannot assign to death whom God has given eternal life. The dream of crucifixion still lies heavy on your eyes, but what you see in dreams is not reality. While you perceive the Son of God as crucified, you are asleep. And as long as you believe that you can crucify him, you are only having nightmares. You who are beginning to wake are still aware of dreams and have not yet forgotten them. The forgetting of dreams and the awareness of Christ comes with the awakening of others to share your redemption.

⁶⁷ You will awaken to your own call, for the Call to awake is within you. If I live in you, you are awake. Yet you must see the works I do through you, or you will not perceive that I have done them unto you. Do not set limits on what you believe I can do through you, or you will not accept what I can do for you. For it is done already, and unless you give all that you have received, you will not know that your Redeemer liveth and that you have awakened with Him. Redemption is recognized only by sharing it.

⁶⁸ God's Son is saved. Bring only this awareness to the Sonship, and you will have a part in the redemption as valuable as mine. For your part must be like mine if you learn it of me. If you believe that yours is limited, you are limiting mine. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because all of God's Sons are of equal value, and their equality is their oneness. The whole power of God is in every part of Him, and nothing contradictory to His Will is either great or small. What does not exist has no size and no measure. To God all things are possible. And to Christ it is given to be like the Father.

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