Village Square III
In our AcimVillage, we have the plane tree that stands in the central village square. Its enormous branches spread out to cover an area wide enough to provide shade on a warm day for many a traveller or tradesman. Water bubbles and trickles from a stone fountain on the eastern side. It is under the plane tree and by the fountain that wandering sages have traditionally lead conversation with the local people, before setting off again on their way; it is here that the townspeople come to exchange views and thoughts on their beloved spiritual philosophy, learning from each other in kindness and wisdom.
Rules to ponder…
Study of A Course In Miracles benefits greatly from sharing our experiences in its practice. Here you can talk about what works, or doesn’t, for you, taking obvious care not to be ‘preachy’, please. We all learn best when someone talks from their own experience, rather than tries to tell us what we should be doing differently. Let’s take the position that none of us are teachers, we are all at the same point returning on the path Homeward. All of us will still be making mistakes for a while yet, so let’s be particularly humble and caring in how we deal with each other. Please keep in mind that this is a site dedicated to the approach Kenneth Wapnick takes to teaching ACIM. I shall certainly do my best to bring everyone back to the core principles as taught by him.
I would also like to point out that AcimVillage is the place to come to explore our judgments, but not to express them as judgments. If you feel you need to gripe, criticize and vent, even subtly, then contact me privately (at bernard@pauloandthemagician.com) where I will receive you with kindness and understanding. Please do not do so in the forums where I will inevitably moderate out this kind of post. Remember, you will feel better only when you are able to move past the investment in your judgments, not simply by unloading them for everyone to see. This means taking responsibility for your perceptions and acknowledging that ultimately no one has prevented you from feeling completely peaceful and safe, despite what might appear to be the unfortunate conditions of your life at this time. (I know, this is hard. Contact me if you’re struggling.)
So, two basic rules here. One, we avoid mention of other approaches to the study of ACIM (non-Wapnickian) as well as to other philosophies we might be studying. This is purely to achieve a stable, comfortable learning forum where we are all aiming at the same goal, using the same symbols and language to get there. This is not to cast any judgment on any other approaches or philosophies. ACIM is a sufficiently difficult path to undertake without bringing more confusion into our study than our minds already contain! If you have benefited from other paths and would like to share your thoughts, by all means do so. Just please do this in the privacy of your personal emails. It’s also my personal opinion (take it or leave it) that at some point a student of ACIM is much better off sticking with one set of symbols and one teacher, and working with these thoroughly, instead of getting too dispersed. Rule two, we try not to play ‘teacher’ with each other here, reminding ourselves to be humble and always equal with our brother.
Enjoy the discussion!
Lesson 185
I want the peace of God.
Good Morning, Annie!
I hope everyone has a beautiful holiday. It is one that the US reveres and is really the only thing we wish to share with the rest of the world — all we want is the freedom to embrace the peace of God!!!
I really do want the piece of God!
Ok
tex – how is the joy doing?
Belated Happy Independence Day wishes to all Village family members in the US ! Have a really good and happy weekend !!!
I’m on lesson 235 but actually I’m meditating on the following KW quote today: ” The idea is to trust that there is a process you’re not in charge of ”
And by the way; my entrance is almost fixed (:
Lesson 186
Salvation of the world depends on me.>/b>
A statement that sounds so arrogant is actually true humility when explained by the Course.
How many times must I be reminded I’m seeing it all upside down and backwards!
All of the fireworks and spectacles we promote on this Holiday weekend remembering our separation from the Motherland and gaining our Independence is just playing out the “tiny mad idea” in a different form. We claim new symbols, we rearrange the red white and blue and call ourselves self created. A Declaration of Independence and we put our John Hancock on it and so it Is.
I guess we really are making up all this s*** as we go.
But it’s so good!
Maybe I should play ‘angry birds instead’?
Saw a photoshopped Flag with :
Happy Fucking Treason Day You Colonial Twats
Sincerely, The English
Ken put it in a much kinder way- From JTTWB:
“Arrogance points to God at the beginning and says: the Self You created is not enough. I want my own. This new self–elsewhere called a travesty and parody of God’s creation
(T-24.VII.1:11:10:9) –begins with an image of sin, guilt and fear, culminating finally in the projected image of a body. Moreover everyone else’s body becomes responsible for mine–the innocent and victimized self.
Forgiveness Indeed!
excuse the bold print…
Annie, . I have benn envying you being able to put in the bold. . I couldm’t remember how and knew i’d have to go check the html stuff. You motivated me and now i remember.
wonder what this does?. and this?
{{{KATRINA}}}
I think of Jamie and all the things I learned at the Monastery…bold print (hee hee I see where I went wrong now in post 456), and italics and getting a gravatar. It was learning the Course and getting computer tips all rolled into one. He was generous that way; I sure do miss him. I know there was so much more that he could teach us. Well, now you know all I know Katrina-bold and italics (:
How’s that shoulder doing? Amery all better? Hubby home from his fishing excursions?
I’m enjoying a 4 day weekend but its really getting hot and if I don’t do my watering early in the morning-I dare not venture out till 5pm. Last year we had such a mild summer…I think this one might be brutal.
Lesson 187
I bless the world because I bless myself.
This is an important theme for me…the form vs. content of giving and receiving.
From early on in my childhood I was taught to give and from very early on I was taught that sacrifice was honorable. This lesson so clearly undoes the unreconcilable thought systems I was operating under.
Over time I have visiting this belief system and I’m sure picked away at it a little more each time. This time it feels like a big chuck has fallen. I can almost embrace it with certainty; “Sacrifice is an idea so mad that sanity dismisses it at once.” I still see my hesitation but like a spinning top that has started to wobble I know the idea of sacrifice is going down.
This next paragraph [from JTTWB] is the best example to me of what Ken embraced and lived each day of his life.
“I would feel peace whether I look on a bright or cloudy day, a garden of beautiful flowers or one of weeds, someone I think is a saint or one I have judged to be a heinous sinner. I am tempted to quote the following and familiar lines in each and every lesson; they are that important:
To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you saw before. Yet this a vision is which you must share with everyone you see, for otherwise you will behold it not (T-31.VIII.8:4-5)“
This lesson is so powerful for me, too.
I recall the “Insight” books where the characters talk about seeing the energies flowing between people during their conversations. And if i think of that and interacting with people, i can see feeling put upon by negative energies when they are doing something i don’t like. This lesson turns that around.
I can see that what I’ve allowed in from above(ish), or more like allow to glow from within, is what I send out, and then I perceive it coming back. Well, that happens when I see joyous things. But when it appears I am getting negative stuff, it is by my letting my core be empty.
(From pg.2 of Ken’s JTW:)
You teach what you believe you are: your wrong-minded self, reinforcing the belief you are right and God is wrong; or your right-minded self, reinforcing the corrected belief that you were wrong and God is right. Thus you teach and give one of two ideas: guilt-fear or forgiveness-love. A thought system is strengthened by teaching it, the meaning of giving it away. By teaching what I believe, I reinforce its truth within myself.
This site is filled with the bright opportunities of only sharing Love. My shoulder is healing, movement is mostly back, just building strength underway. Our baby is well and now telling me she is done playing in her bed and would like some bananas and eggs! DH is unpacking Yellowtail for months of sustenance from the sea. Bless each of you, please murmur your holy names aloud, as i need to get baby!
There is no giver and receiver in the sense the world conceives of them. There is a giver who retains; another who will give as well.
Well, i had the whole conception of giving wrong from the get-go.
Firstly Katarina-thank you for going back to the “no giver and receiver” statement.
That is a HARD STOP moment!
This is the non-dualistic system.
“Your creations belong to you, as you belong in God”
Wow, needed to see that this morning!
And still the need to keep to the one a day lesson…I pray that my unconscious it taking very good notes.
Lesson 188
The peace of God is shining in me now.
I think it can also be said that the piece of God is shining in us now too (:
It made me smile Tex-sorry I’m a bit slow on the commenting. “The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source.”
I like how Ken states that this lesson was one of Bill’s favorites.
“We take are wandering thoughts, and gently bring them back to where they fall in line with all the thoughts we share with God…
Ken states; “Jesus gently urges us to choose again..”
I remember the catch phrase that I often said to my kids as they would take off for school or play – “make good choices”. I see now that Jesus is asking me to do the same (:
Lesson 189
I feel the Love of God within me now.
“The lesson closes with this lovely prayer:
(10) Father, we do not know the way to You. But we have called, and You have answered us. We will not interfere. Salvation’s ways are not our own, for they belong to You. And it is unto You we look for them. Our hands are open to receive Your gifts. We have no thoughts we think apart from You, and cherish no beliefs of what we are, or Who created us. Your Will, which is our own as well, be done in us and in the world, that it become a part of Heaven now. Amen.
You know, lesson 187 about blessing the world and ourselves was so comforting i just wanted to stay there and roll around in it forever. And i noticed the part where i keep it while i give it and then it even keeps going as they give it. But in true wisdom J jumps right into what it is i’m getting and giving, the peace of God and then the Love of God. He does let me stay in L. 187, just whispering what it is i’m looking for inside to give. Sometimes, i think He knows what He is doing! (Even when i think i have a better idea.)
It’s also interesting that my mind gets stuck on giving being something material in the world and He leads me into understanding that i give something that can be kept and propagated, and that peace and love are Real gifts.
Lesson 190
I choose the joy of God instead of pain.
Lovely commentary from Anil over at the Fireside !
Great Tex !
How is the fan, Hedda !
I’ve loved hearing from Nina, Kendall, Peggy, Al, and Bernard lately !
Baby crying, got to go !
I visited the Village’s Shopping center yesterday. It has been here for 39 years, when I moved here newly married.
There were lots of obstacles before the main entrance. I assumed they were digging a hole or sumthin and was aggravated that they did not put up clear signs. Didn’t they respect their customers or what? Justified pissed-off-ness popped up, and I bowed my back and crept under a thin line and was met by a man who just pointed “another way. Over there.”
“Over there” was a new entrance. The whole Mall is rebuild and expanded, and the main entrance was now closed.
What’s the point here? OH – the discovery – yet again – of how clear signs ( NEW ENTRANCE AROUND THE CORNER) were completely overlooked and dismissed by consciousness because I had walked the other way for almost 40 years.
I was blind for those signs. They were all over the place. But my habitual perception were just looking for what it always had seen and believed as “real.”
Which reminds me of a sweet story: one of our great authors once told about one day when he looked out his window on the street parallel to the main street in town – and saw a donkey tied to a bike on the street. Many people passed it, and nobody reacted.
Nobody expects to see a donkey in town. It is invisible for all the people who are not willing to have the validity of their perception questioned
love and hugs
Nina
Lesson 191
I am the holy Son of God Himself.
Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. You need but tell yourself:
I am the holy Son of God Himself. I cannot suffer,
cannot be in pain; I cannot suffer loss, nor fail to do
all that salvation asks.
And in that thought is everything you look on wholly changed.
A miracle has lighted up all dark and ancient caverns, where the rites of death echoed since time began. For time has lost its hold upon the world. The Son of God has come in glory to redeem the lost, to save the helpless, and to give the world the gift of his forgiveness. Who could see the world as dark and sinful, when God’s Son has come again at last to set it free?
Lesson 192
I have a function God would have me fill.
Did anybody read Susan Dugan’s article this week? She talks about Ken’s emphasis these last couple years on ‘quitting the baby stuff.’ I think that is the function God would have me fill. Of course, i doon wanna. I need help – Ken? Bill?
Lesson 193
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
This lesson has always brought me solace. As though each confusing mishap is there for a good reason, whether i see it or not. I can just accept it and wait to see what good it brings.
Today was one of those days where i popped out of bed and into max action from then to now. My teenage granddaughter stayed at a friends house down the block, and i awoke to the sound of her opening up the fridge on the back deck outside my bedroom, and distributing Monster drinks to 2 friends, then baby breakfast, and then breakfast for the teens (13-14), then go-go-go. (The lesson I got was not to buy those Monster drinks for her!)
Lesson 194
I place the future in the Hands of God.
Gosh, i think this is my favorite of all lessons. So often i worry about the future — mine seems okay, unless… My kids’ futures do not go so well. That may influence mine, too. Still, it is theirs i worry about. All i can do sometimes is remember this lesson, repeat it, and repeat it each time a concern arises. Somehow I feel i can rely on it, wee baby here in my home not withstanding. After all, what do i know.
My son is working nights, so i am doing the morning wakeups. It is 9 am – who has ever heard of a baby who sleeps till 9!! I can hear her in her crib saying, “oh, ohhh.” Nothing wrong, it is just her main ‘word’ right now. Yesterday, she blurted out a full phrase. “No, don’t, no, no”. It is so funny. Every baby I’ve been with, I’ve tried to teach them to say “I love you” as their first phrase. And yet, they always pick up a NO first. I had never before considered that maybe they are sensing the need to say no to the ego. Okay, I place the future in the Hands of God, and start with slicing a banana and scrambling some eggs. (No caffeine seeking teenage invasion this morning, whew!)
Ciao!
So, of Course i read:
One person says- worry is attack, fear is murderous.
Then David Fishman says-
The mind alternates between sense & nonsense, not between right * wrong, good * bad, … worry, blame, shame, guilt etc. That’s nonsense <3
Lesson 195
Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
My brother is my enemy because i see him as my rival for peace.
What? If i see him/her being peaceful, i think they took mine??
Lesson 196
It can be but myself I crucify.
Whew, nobody else is doing it, and i can decide otherwise! And i do!
And I saw just how much I crucify myself daily ! It’s insane.
Perhaps the lesson brought into sharp focus how deep the insanity goes.
And I couldn’t seem to stop it.
It was magnetic.
Finally at night, just barely ten minutes ago, the thought popped into my head.
” I do not know the meaning of anything”
And I got a whiff of peace, and catapulted right bam into Lesson 2 or 3 or some such single digit.
(:
G’night all !
Yes, Anil, if I don’t know the meaning of anything, what basis could judging myself as doing something wrong come from. The ego just wants me to use its repetitive logic that is simply nonsense! I fall for it, but grudgingly, i begin to have lucid moments of questioning my self-crucifixion.
WOWOW – I use different words (bad words) here – I can be myself I ****
But on account of my babysitter wants me to not get off track I leave out the bad words here!
So yeah – that one hits home.
I just found a very powerful youtube on 2+2=5, but it’s not what you’d expect. The caption at the end reads: In this age of lies, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpKW8AeiRqU
I’d be interested to read your comments. Ken might replace the teacher’s words with 2+2=4, and the message would be the same. To Ken, telling the truth IS 2+2=5.
Love to all.
And the earth is flat
and the sun revolves around it
and we will burn you if you –
There was a recent discussion at the ACIMVillage about the laws of this world that ruled mankind’s mind at one time in the past, and now today seem quite ridiculous. This was in the context of a video which demonstrated the cost and horror of mindlessly following doctrines that society feeds to us, which we can refuse to believe, but require great determination to do so. This article distilled from that discussion, and seeks to present to us the choices we have as A Course In Miracles students to hone our will in the face of the ego’s propaganda.
Is the earth flat? Is the earth the fixed center of the universe? At one time society as a whole did indeed think so. Many are the ancient and superstitious ‘laws’ that people, like Galileo, suffered and were imprisoned for and yet look so remarkably silly today. Now Kenneth Wapnick and others have come to tell us about other such ‘laws’ that we can learn to see beyond, with the promise that we’ll be much happier if our thinking is actually in line with reality.
We grew up collectively, during the Renaissance, when we began to accept that we couldn’t take our perceptions about the earth at face value (it wasn’t the fixed center of the universe!). In the 21st century we’re being asked to rise up one more step on the ladder of knowledge, and learn to question other closely held beliefs that rule our lives, and cause us unhappiness. We’re being asked to look at all our other perceptions, not just about the earth, but about the entire range of our feelings, thoughts and emotions, and to investigate these with great honesty. We need to use Galileo’s level of courage and honesty.
What are the laws today that are being called into question? Kenneth has proposed a new set of thoughts to replace the old ones – intensely shocking to all of us: the world doesn’t really exist as anything outside of our thought; there’s only one Life, not many, and it is not divided or separate; real Life is non-physical and exists entirely outside of time and space; there are no differences between any of ‘us’; we can have no separate interests; we cannot attack another and be happy (really?); there is no death, no beginning and no ending; no hurt is truly possible; the past is nothing…
He is asking us to question absolutely every belief that holds our personal and collective worlds in place. And he is informing us, very kindly, that absolutely none of the ‘laws’ of this world are meaningful or trustworthy in any respect. “2+2=5”.
Yet, despite the clarity his teaching, we still manage to live our lives as if all those false laws were true (expressed by the idea that “2+2=4”). We get out of bed as the ‘sun rises’, we feel tension with our ‘other’ half as he/she expresses his/her needs, we feel disrespected and unappreciated when another person gets the promotion/raise instead of us, we feel sad and lonely when another body passes away, we feel fearful and self-hateful when we make a mistake, and on and on. As experienced students of A Course In Miracles, we know that these experiences are not based on truth or reality. We made up the rules; we then live our lives by these deceptions; they make us unhappy; and then we justify our experiences claiming they are truth. Utter craziness.
We are very strange creatures. Even when we know we’re getting the math wrong (Ken left us no wiggle room), we still continue to live by those false laws of separate interests, vulnerability, sin, fear and guilt. We convince ourselves, and others, despite the blatant evidence of our errors, that they are the correct rules to live by, to think by, and to react to.
We need to have Galileo’s courage now. Galileo was an amazing man. During his trial when he was charged with heresy, he was forced to deny that the earth moved around the sun, as he had claimed in his treatise, and supported the church’s view that the earth was fixed in space. But his final words before the inquisitor, Vincenzo Maculani, revealed his true understanding, and his inner strength in the face of immense opposition. As he was sentenced to house arrest (under which he stayed for the rest of his life), he turned to his inquisitor and, speaking of the earth, he said “– And yet it moves”.
Four tiny, short words that spoke a simple, world-changing truth. Four tiny words that were to undo an extremely powerful religious cosmology. Four tiny words that made the most powerful political and religious institution of the time look ridiculous.
“And yet it moves. ” Galileo simply stated the obvious. His spectacles showed him a different world, and he did not deny what he saw simply because it contradicted everything everyone thought, felt, saw and deeply believed. That’s courage.
What seemed like an impossible idea of the greatest heresy at the time, bringing a life imprisonment sentence upon him who propounded them, is today an accepted, established fact. We live quite comfortably now with the ‘impossibilty’ of the earth turning around the sun. It doesn’t seem to shock too many people or to strike fear into any sensitive souls. But how many more ideas that we currently accept as indisputable ‘fact’ will be tomorrow’s fiction and mere foolishness? Sadness? Guilt? Depression? Euphoria? Sickness? Suffering? Death? Individuality? Duality? Life on earth? Time? The universe?
Next year will mark exactly 400 years since heliocentrism was subjected to examination by the Roman Inquisition. The following year, in 1616, Galileo went to Rome to defend his ideas. And us? What ideas are we willing to defend in 2014, and in the face of whom?
We need to learn to live with the truth in our minds now, and to defend it. Not against society or the medical and scientific community, but against our own internal inquisitor – the ego. Our greatest challenge is within our own minds, which we allow only too easily to follow the dictates of our own insane ruler. As Ken taught us, we learn to deny the ego’s denial of the truth. Saying yes to the truth means looking at the many false beliefs we hold, and learning to say now, “That’s not good enough”.
Just as simply as someone asking us, “Does the sun turn around the earth?” and we respond, “Of course not!”, we learn to react to all ego foolishness in the same way:
“Can I feel better by judging and attacking someone?” Of course not.
“Does my current pain come from my childhood or from my circumstances?” Of course not.
“Is my irritation and anger because of what he just said and did?” Of course not.
“Does the mind live within the body?” Of course not.
These declarations are heresy for the ego, but salvation and freedom for us.
We can continue practicing on easy questions, like “Is the earth flat?” and learn to respond with simple clarity, “Of course not”. And so we will learn to do the same with other simple non-truths we bring to light:
Is there such a thing as death? Of course not.
Can we be hurt, are we truly vulnerable? Of course not.
Am I alone in my mind? Of course not.
Are my guilty thoughts worthy of God’s wrath? Of course not.
Can someone deny me of anything I truly need? Of course not.
Is it the future that scares me? Of course not.
“And yet it moves. ” Just a few simple words can shift entirely our perspective on reality. For us as A Course In Miracles students, we can look at this world and find our own simple, clear responses to the inner inquisitor. We say, despite all our perceptions, thoughts and experiences to the contrary:
“And yet God is.”
“And yet love is.”
“And yet peace is.”
We can continue with further revolutionary, institution-shaking thoughts:
“And yet there is no death.”
“And yet there is no individual life, but one magnificent Life.”
“And yet the holy Son of God is innocent and deserves only forgiveness.”
“And yet there is not one who is excluded from this forgiveness.”
“And yet all appearances of pain are just that.”
“And yet we all live within that still, perfect, timeless blessing, entirely outside of time and space.”
“And yet peace can be seen instead of this.”
We can look at the illusion of the world, that place of make-believe pain and death, and remember, as Ken reminded us so many times: “God thinks otherwise”. Three life-changing words that undo the entire the thought system that rules our minds.
Jesus thinks otherwise.
Our right minds think otherwise.
And, ultimately, we think otherwise, and learn that peace is here.
Pain? Death? Suffering? Ecstasy? Sickness? Hurt? Blame? Guilt? Reproach?
Our four-word response: And yet peace is.
Our three-word response: God thinks otherwise.
Three or four tiny words that can change the entire direction and destiny of human thought.
But let me just be concerned with mine for the moment.
Lesson 197
It can be but my gratitude I earn.
Wouldn’t you know i’d forget to post this one …
Lesson 198
Only my condemnation injures me.
What cha’ thinking, Anil?
you were (are) a ray of light for me the last two and half hours, Katrina.
I am tempted to say the only ray of light, but Quite likely a thought or two of J and our Father did probably creep into my darkened mind, beside your question enquiring on what I was thinking,
The thought of wanting to respond to you kept me going, who knew an hour and a half could be so long (I even wrote two and a half hours in my opening sentence, in error, that’s how long it felt)
(:
But now I am showered and ready to pick up my son from school, ahead of my self imposed deadline of 5 pm, and the world looks a little cleaner, post shower, as the magic of showers is apt to induce in me. (They have always had a life-enhancing effect in the grand Illusion I have constructed)
So those, among other things, were the thoughts rifling through my mind, since my last visit to the gathering places in this Village ! (:
And many, many more thoughts, quite repetitive, really, and too onerous to write down, but I think I am understanding, if it can be called understanding, that there is only one way forward for me, and that is to accept the Atonement for myself.
For now, if I can understand that only my condemnation injures me, (and nothing else has the power to injure me), then that seems to be a step in the right direction ! (:
Ps. I hope you are reading this after a good nights sleep, or if indeed, you are awake at 1 am in SLO, then hopefully you are in happy relaxed state of mind, notwithstanding the wee hours (:
Lesson 199
I am not a body. I am free.
I am living within a fence ‘advertised’ as a safe hiding place. But i am not that fence!
Anil, when I post so late (for me after 10 pm) it is already July 18 nearly everywhere else (except Hawaii), so I just jaunt this down and will not see your comments till tomorrow. I like to have
The lesson in my mind when i wake up so i can lie there and think – now, what was it? – and hopefully i have some still time to read the lesson thru before the day gets going. But that is not foretellable or dependable.
I am not a body. I am free.
I hear the Voice that God has given me,
and it is only this my mind obeys.
The rest of the story…
I bet Galileo would totally agree with todays lesson!
What a fantastic post #483 Mr. Mayor!!!
And Katrina thanks for keeping up with the daily lessons…And Anil you made it to the Village Square so good to see you here (: I was beginning to think you would never hang under the Big tree again.
I have my sister visiting with her family (husband & son) and staying with us and my morning routines have been temporarily placed on hold. I still start my day with the lessons but I can’t luxuriate in them. Maybe thats the issue- I love reading them but do I actually take the next step and make them my experience?…mostly no…I still just like sitting at the foot of Jesus and listening to him.
And I can see that my math problem 2+ blank = four is waiting for me (:
Love and Peace ♡
This morning i woke up early and pain free. What a kick! Looks like today’s lesson did its thing.
I had time to read your lovely treatise, Mr. Mayor. Fit for posting on the village church door! It appeared as words, and yet, it moved! I also checked out your French website and had some fun trying to equate english and french words, and admiring the graceful page presentation, and all the exciting options. What a great endeavor you and Patricia have made, in fact, created. “The Holy Spirit can make use of your escape from bondage, to set free the many”. You two bring Joan of Arc to my thoughts, but a peaceful version of her intentions.
Annie, you must be really seeing the town now, with your sister and family there for an extended stay. Gives you a chance to dive into all the great things LA has to offer. I loved the all encompassing view and science at Griffin park (isn’t there a statue of Galileo there by synchronous happenstance) and am still wanting to get to the Getty. And the shows, well … LA – where it is all at.
Well, duty calls.
lesson 200.
There is no peace except the Peace of God.
Hi Katrina, so glad to hear that you were pain-free yesterday. That must have felt joyful. I hope it sticks now for good. Thanks for your kind words about our French site, and the article. We’ve put a lot of work into the site and the activity over here, and its rewarding to see that it’s bearing a little fruit. There are nearly forty hours of recorded talks available on the site (for free) which seems to be the main reason people are visiting for the moment. And thanks to you, too, Annie, for your thoughts about the article. In fact, I have to thank Nina in large part. She put two and two together and came up with that little message of hers which was just what it needed to get the creativity flowing. And all my thanks to all of you in general for keeping our village a lively little place, for changing the flowers in the Tavern, and for keeping the Big Tree company.
Lesson 201 (review 181)
Start with,
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Then we move onto the review of one lesson a day starting from 181…which is:
I trust my brothers who are one with me.
And we end with the same central theme for the next 20 days,
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Bernard – yes – those words felt SO good to write down – feels wonderful to know they came from Self:)
Lesson 202
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(182) I will be still an instant and go home.
Why would I choose to stay an instant more where I do not
belong, when God Himself has given me His Voice to call
me home?
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 203
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(183) I call upon God’s Name and on my own.
The Name of God is my deliverance from every thought of
evil and of sin, because it is my own as well as His.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
What I love about this set of lessons is how J has distilled an entire long version down to a single thought.
Lesson 204.
The not a body prayer.
Then,
184. The Name of God is my inheritance.
End with..
Am not a body.
(Spend a minimum of 15 mins with this each morning and evening if I can, no pressure. Just an invitation. A loving one.)
This Course is too hard for me… rather – it sucks so hard to think that “all this” is not real. And yet – it real is a mad house out there… I would very much prefer that the Course is true.
The big split in the world of Course students is the “what happens next” part. The on-going “debate” about the happy dream…
Do we all go poof?
Does J HipHop-Diggity Dog suddenly transform our world into a world of rainbows and puppies and endless skittles and smiling unicorns?
Or do we keep on here in this world (until we seemingly die) but now with the inside knowledge that we are dreaming, and everything we look upon is just an image that I (yes- even I) have made!?! And the smiles come when we realize that is it not true. Nothing I see or hear is true.
I am not a body
Lesson 204
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(184) The Name of God is my inheritance.
God’s Name reminds me that I am His Son, not slave to
time, unbound by laws which rule the world of sick illusions,
free in God, forever and forever one with Him.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.