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Course in Miracles Society (CIMS) is an international group of Course students and teachers organized to discover, authenticate and propagate the Divine Teachings of A Course in Miracles.
 
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A Course in Miracles-Original Edition
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A Course in Miracles

is a self-study course.

In the beginning it tells
us, "This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time
you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean
you can establish the curric...

 

 

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The past is gone.  

 

"Everything God wills is not only possible but has already happened. And that is why the past has gone. It never happened in reality. Only in your minds, which thought it did, is its undoing needful."

  

A COURSE IN MIRACLES CH 18 Section V
"The Little Willingness" paragraph 40

Review VI
IAMBIC PENTAMETER

 

   With this review, we take but one idea

   each day, and practice it as often as

   is possible. Besides the time we give

   morning and evening, which should not be less

   than fifteen minutes, and the hourly

   remembrances we make throughout the day,

   use the idea as often as you can

   between them. Each of these ideas alone

   would be sufficient for salvation, if

   it is learned truly. Each would be enough

   to give release to you and to the world

   from every form of bondage, and invite

   the memory of God to come again.

 

   With this in mind, we start our practicing

   in which we carefully review the thoughts

   the Holy Spirit has bestowed on us

   in our last twenty lessons. Each contains

   the whole curriculum, if understood,

   practiced, accepted and applied to all

   the seeming happenings throughout the day.

   One is enough. But for that one there must

   be no exceptions made. And so we need

   to use them all, and let them blend as one

   as each contributes to the whole we learn.

 

   These practice lessons, like our last review,

   are centered round a central theme with which

   we start and end each lesson. It is this:

 

   "I am not a body. I am free.

    For I am still as God created me."*

 

   The day begins and ends with this. And we

   repeat it every time the hour strikes,

   or we remember, in between, we have

   a function that transcends the world we see.

   Beyond this and a repetition of

   the special thought we practice for the day,

   no form of exercise is urged, except

   a deep relinquishing of everything

   that clutters up your mind, and makes it deaf

   to reason, sanity and simple truth.

 

   We will attempt to get beyond all words

   and special forms of practicing for this

   review. For we attempt this time to reach

   a quickened pace along a shorter path

   to the serenity and peace of God.

   We merely close our eyes, and then forget

   all that we thought we saw and understood.

   For thus is freedom given us from all

   we did not know and failed to understand.

 

   There is but one exception to this lack

   of structuring. Permit no idle thought

   to go unchallenged. If you notice one,

   deny its hold and hasten to assure

   your mind that this is not what it would have.

   Then gently let the thought which you denied

   be given up in sure and quick exchange

   for the idea we practice for the day.

 

   When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim

   your freedom from temptation, as you say:

 

   "This thought I do not want. I choose instead..."

 

   And then repeat the idea for the day,

   and let it take the place of what you thought.

   Beyond such special applications of

   each day's idea, we will add but few

   formal expressions for specific thoughts

   to aid your practicing. Instead we give

   these times of quiet to the Teacher Who

   instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives

   our thoughts whatever meaning they may have.

 

   To Him I offer this review for you.

   I place you in His charge, and let Him teach

   you what to do and say and think each time

   you turn to Him. He will not fail to be

   available to you each time you call

   to Him to help you. Let us offer Him

   the whole review we now begin, and let

   us also not forget to Whom it has

   been given, as we practice, day by day,

   advancing toward the goal He set for us;

   allowing Him to teach us how to go,

   and trusting Him completely for the way

   each practice period can best become

   a loving gift of freedom to the world. "

 

   ~ Original Handscript of ACIM

 

     

AUDIO  

 

*This originally appeared as "I am as God created me." Helen later changed it in her Notes by adding above the line, the words 'For' and 'still.' Thus we read, "<For> I am <still> as God created me. By adding two syllables, she achieves the ten syllables necessary for perfect iambic pentameter which she appears to have decided was important here.

Daily Lesson
  

L e s s o n  201

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.*

 <LISTEN >

IAMBIC PENTAMETER   

 

   [181] I trust my brothers, who are one with me.

 

   No one but is my brother. I am blessed

   with oneness with the universe, and God,

   my Father, One Creator of the whole

   that is my Self, forever one with me.

     

AUDIO 

 

*This originally appeared as "I am as God created me." Helen later changed it in her Notes by adding above the line, the words 'For' and 'still.' Thus we read, "<For> I am <still> as God created me. By adding two syllables, she achieves the ten syllables necessary for perfect iambic pentameter which she appears to have decided was important here.

 

ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections

ACIM Edmonton, CA

Lesson  201
 
Review: Lesson 181
 
 

Sarah's Commentary:          

 

We are almost ready to start Part II of the workbook. We have spent our last twenty lessons continuing to address the blocks to true perception.  And now we review these twenty lessons to firmly establish them in our minds by practicing each one as often as possible throughout the day. Each review has been about reminding us of the importance of really understanding each lesson and establishing it firmly in our minds.  In the introduction to this review Jesus tells us that the whole curriculum is in each idea if understood, practiced, accepted and applied to "all the seeming happenings throughout the day". (2.2)  If we get any idea for the day fully, and really learn it truly, it would be the only lesson we need to release us from the bondage of the world  So all we need is just one idea but that idea must be applied without exception. WOW!

This tells me how resistant the ego mind is to really getting each idea fully. That is why I think the Course comes at us from so many perspectives. The ego offers us all kinds of blocks to keep the truth from entering fully into our mind. We justify to ourselves why our perception of events and situations is correct. We stubbornly hold onto our 'truth' as we perceive it. Why would we do that when our perception brings us more guilt, pain and suffering?  Apparently it brings us what we want which is to see ourselves as unfairly treated and cling to our specialness and self concept. That is why we need the Holy Spirit as the Answer the ego's persistent hold on our minds. And that Answer is already in our minds. We just need to open to it. We need to be willing to surrender to His Answer. So we seem to need the combination of lessons so they can ultimately blend as one.

The lessons in Part II are much shorter, with no more detailed practice instructions. As a result we will be left to follow the discipline that we have established for ourselves in our practice.    Lesson 153 gave us a very good overall approach to our practice which will continue to serve us well for Part II of the workbook. We are urged not to take less than 15 minutes in our morning and evening meditation. And during the day, hourly remembrances are encouraged. But now he asks us to think of the lesson as often as we can in between the hourly practice. So we are doing frequent reminders throughout each hour.  As well we continue with the response to temptation practice which includes how we use the lesson to address any situation, event or person that takes us out of our peace.

Each daily lesson can serve us well to remind us of the truth in any situation  where we are feel  anxious, feel unfairly treated, experience any kind of emotional or physical pain or fear.  Applying the lesson will help us to release  the blocks to peace that we experience in those seemingly difficult situations. When this happens, affirm that "this thought I do not want. I choose instead..........(lesson for that day). We are replacing our ego thoughts with the thought for the day. I know for me, when I am experiencing anger, frustration, impatience, worry, or whatever other feeling shows up, that I have chosen wrongly and can choose again. The lessons have really been like a life raft to me in this regard, bringing me back from the ego's hell to the peace of God. 

In Lesson 199  we were reminded of  how the body limits our perception of who we are.  Our mind is free when we no longer see ourselves as a body. It is essential to our progress in this Course, according to this lesson, that we really get the fact that we are not the body. We are mind. Yes, the ego finds this idea totally insane. We do think that we are the body because we have aligned ourselves with the ego which is our wrong mind. We affirm this daily by saying things like "I am tired" instead of my body is seemingly tired or "I am in a car" when my body is seemingly in the car. It is not me. I can put my body to bed, but my mind can wander freely.

It seems that I am united with my body and that it is my home, but this is just an illusion. We hold onto this illusion because we are holding onto the identity as a self that is separate, unique and special. When we declare our innocence and experience a holy instant, we experience freedom from the body. It disappears for that moment of timelessness.

So while we feed, pamper, exercise, and put energy into its care, and while we try to hold onto it,   we are reminded of our limited and bound existence. Yet as we distance ourselves from our body through forgiveness, and remind ourselves that our reality is outside of this dream, then the body can be put to a holy purpose. So it can then be used as a communication tool for the Holy Spirit.  

This idea that we are not a body is a big stretch for us which is why the idea is repeated over and over in the review lessons. "It is essential for your progress in this Course that you accept today's idea, and hold it very dear." (199.3.1)So it is a process of recognizing we have been wrong about everything we perceive and that we can make another choice.

We are aiming in these practices for "deep relinquishment". (IN.3.8)We are allowing each ego thought that comes to our mind to be brought to awareness and released to the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge that we do not know anything and thus are willing to be taught. To say I do not know, is deeply threatening to the ego.

The process is rigorous and does take effort. It does require vigilance in watching our thoughts. Our minds will wander but we are doing these lessons to bring greater awareness and focus. Be willing to release your "idle thoughts" for healing by paying attention to what you are thinking about. These ego thoughts are not the truth of who we are. They are the chatter of the ego which keeps us from the truth. It keeps us from hearing that still small voice. It keeps us from the Kingdom.

Our efforts are now focused on truth and less of our attention goes to the things that distract us which is the game of the ego. We follow the teachings in Mathew 6.33 where he says "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added onto you". In other words, we are learning more and more to walk in trust that if we put our focus on truth, then the our bodily needs will be taken care of. We are learning to take our hands off the steering wheel of our lives. So now our focus is on bringing forgiveness to every relationship and every situation that seems to cause loss of peace. Forgivness becomes our main function in spite of what the backdrop may look like. The backdrop is just the stage that reflects the outward forms in our lives. It may look like being a housewife, a photographer, a taxi driver, a stockbroker, it matters not. What matters is doing the forgiveness work of releasing our judgments with those who come on our stage or those that are brought to mind.   There are no accidents. All has been ordained in our script. What matters is the holy encounters in these situations.

We start the day with remembering that our brothers are one with us. You are me. We are part of one Self. There is only one Mind. "I trust my brothers who are one with me". We are taking our focus off of our brothers' mistakes remembering that we are not different from them and what we affirm about them, we will see the same in ourselves. We remind ourselves to put our focus on who they really are, the same as ourselves. "No one but is my brother. I am blessed with oneness with the universe and God, my Father, one Creator of the whole that is my Self forever one with me." (201.1.2)

Dedicate your day  to truth. Dedicate your practice to God. Jesus says that he is placing us in God's charge and asks that we let Him teach us "what to do and say and think, each time we turn to Him". (Introduction Review VI. 7.2) When we release that which interferes in hearing His Voice, He guides us very naturally in everything we do and say and think. That is such a lovely thought and reminds us to keep watching our thoughts, step out of the way and walk in trust that we will be guided more and more as we do this mind training work and dedicate ourselves to the practice as described here. It requires deep relinquishment of everything that clutters up our minds. It is all this stuff that makes us deaf to reason, to sanity and to simple truth.  
 

Love and blessings, Sarah
 

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A Course in Miracles
 
TEXT 

Chapter Eighteen:
The Dream and the Reality

V. The Little Willingness

 

32 The holy instant is the result of your determination to be holy. It is the answer. The desire and the willingness to let it come precedes its coming. You prepare your minds for it only to the extent of recognizing that you want it above all else. It is not necessary that you do more; indeed, it is necessary that you realize that you cannot do more. Do not attempt to give the Holy Spirit what He does not ask, or you will add the ego unto Him and confuse the two. He asks but little. It is He who adds the greatness and the might. He joins with you to make the holy instant far greater than you can understand. It is your realization that you need do so little that enables Him to give so much.

33 Trust not your good intentions. They are not enough. But trust implicitly your willingness, whatever else may enter. Concentrate only on this and be not disturbed that shadows surround it. That is why you came. If you could come without them, you would not need the holy instant. Come to it not in arrogance, assuming that you must achieve the state its coming brings with it. The miracle of the holy instant lies in your willingness to let it be what it is. And in your willingness for this lies also your acceptance of yourself as you were meant to be.

34 Humility will never ask that you remain content with littleness. But it does require that you be not content with less than greatness, which comes not of you. Your difficulty with the holy instant arises from your fixed conviction that you are not worthy of it. And what is this but the determination to be as you would make yourself? God did not create His dwelling-place unworthy of Him. And if you believe He cannot enter where He wills to be, you must be interfering with His Will. You do not need the strength of willingness to come from you, but only from His Will.

35 The holy instant does not come from your little willingness alone. It is always the result of your small willingness combined with the unlimited power of God's Will. You have been wrong in thinking that it is needful to prepare yourself for Him. It is impossible to make arrogant preparations for holiness and not believe that it is up to you to establish the conditions for peace. God has established them. They do not wait upon your willingness for what they are. Your willingness is needed only to make it possible to teach you what they are. If you maintain you are unworthy of learning this, you are interfering with the lesson by believing that you make the learner different. You did not make the learner, nor can you make him different. Would you first make a miracle yourself and then expect one to be made for you?

36 You merely ask the question. The answer is given. Seek not to answer it, but merely receive the answer as it is given. In preparing for the holy instant, do not attempt to make yourself holy to be ready to receive it. That is but to confuse your role with God's. Atonement cannot come to those who think that they must first atone, but only to those who offer it nothing more than simple willingness to make way for it. Purification is of God alone and therefore for you. Rather than seek to prepare yourself for Him, try to think thus:

37 I who am host to God am worthy of Him.
He Who established His dwelling-place in me created it as He would have it be. It is not needful that I make it ready for Him, But only that I do not interfere with His plan to restore to me my own awareness of my readiness, which is eternal. I need add nothing to His plan. But to receive it, I must be willing not to substitute my own in place of it.

38 And that is all. Add more and you will merely take away the little that is asked. Remember you made guilt and that your plan for the escape from guilt has been to bring Atonement to it and make salvation fearful. And it is only fear that you will add if you prepare yourself for love. The preparation for the holy instant belongs to Him Who gives it. Release yourselves to Him Whose function is release. Do not assume His function for Him. Give Him but what He asks, that you may learn how little is your part and how great is His.

39 It is this that makes the holy instant so easy and so natural. You make it difficult because you insist there must be more that you need do. [You find it difficult to accept the idea that you need give so little to receive so much.] And it is very hard for you to realize that it is not personally insulting that your contribution and the Holy Spirit's are so extremely disproportionate. You are still convinced your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. Salvation is easy just because it asks nothing that you cannot give right now.

40 Forget not that it has been your decision to make everything that is natural and easy for you impossible. What you believe to be impossible will be if God so wills it, but you will remain quite unaware of it. If you believe the holy instant is difficult for you, it is because you have become the arbiter of what is possible and remain unwilling to give place to One Who knows. The whole belief in orders of difficulty in miracles is centered on this. Everything God wills is not only possible but has already happened. And that is why the past has gone. It never happened in reality. Only in your minds, which thought it did, is its undoing needful.

 

  
 
 

 

 

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