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 205
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(185) I want the peace of God.
The peace of God is everything I want. The peace of God is
my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek,
my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide
where I am not at home.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
For you, Anil, and each of us —
The end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life.
Not at home …
Thank you, dear Katrina. Timely indeed your message. Thank you. God bless.
Lesson 205.
The “am-not-a-body” prayer.
(186) Salvation of the world depends on me.
I am entrusted with the gifts of God….
End with..
“am-not-a-body” prayer.
“God’s gifts, through the Holy Spirit, are not given to the world so I would have a happier body and happier dream. His gift is the Atonement principle, the reflected Presence of Love in my mind. Thus the gift I give my brother is the gift of peace, which tells him I have accepted my mind’s correction, and he is free to make the same choice for salvation.”
JTTWB
As I was reading todays Lesson I recalled a snippet of a dream I had last night where Ken was seated at a table across from me and for the life of me I can’t recall the dialogue but I do remember trying to “get” what he was saying -trying to have him word things so that it would reinforce my perception and I think it was some kind of gibberish that he was speaking…
Now that I think about it …I wasn’t ready to hear the Truth even in my dreams! To the ego all these lessons sound like gibberish. Kinda like in the Peanuts Cartoons where all adult voices are the same Waa, waa waa white noise.
I pray the Holy Spirit to cloak me in a white blanket of forgiveness …so sure was I that I was open to hear His word and so gently was I shown how deep is my resistance. I can see that hidden belief that if I follow the Courses’ path I will have a happier body and happier dream.
I want my burdens to be taken from me…there is no turning back. I’ve come to this cross road before…The I am not a body – I am free – is a most powerful review.
Thank you my friends in Christ for showing up daily and keeping with the Lesson Plan.
So I’m back. A little late. But better late than never (:
Annie, that was a great post you put up y’day..and I’m tempted to riff along the lines of gibberish that you mention (:,
But I will not yield to temptation (:
And move straight to Lesson 207.
L 207
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
(187) review thought for the day…. I bless the world because I bless myself.
And our customary ending…I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
In some additional lines that J offers us to latch our mind onto before we get to the closing NotABody prayer, he says something quite beautiful…
Gods blessing shines upon me from within my heart, where He abides. And I need but turn to Him, and every sorrow melts away, as I accept the boundless Love He has for me,…
Oh to be that still and feel the sorrow melt away into his boundless Love!
There is this thought that I know it is True…just, not right now, just not for me…
yes, I see it
…and so it Is done unto me as I believe…
And I am grateful for this revelation.
Like the kindergartener who is encouraged to practice his alphabet and assured he will be able to read and write one day too – I won’t be discouraged.
Everything is perfect the way that it is and the way that it is not (an old Science of Mind line that instantly calms me down or at least lets me take in a deep breath).
I also want to share if you haven’t read it already at Sean Reagan’s site his latest post; Looking at the Looker. That’s-seanreagan (dot) com. What a generous soul he is – sharing his process.
That of course has me remembering Jamie (: Hey did we get the plaque to dedicate the corner booth at the Fireside Lounge to Jamie Romkey? I know there is a picture of the Monastery there. Anyone corresponding with Jamie these days? If so, please do bring us an update.
It’s tempting to believe dedications, pictures and plaques are all about making the body real. Yet I Know HS will do his thing and make it a place where eternal Love can be glimpsed in the dream.
Cheers My Friends
Okay, it’s timestamp the next day when we tiptoe into being on the same day as Anil and Al . . .
Lesson 208
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(188) The peace of God is shining in me now.
I will be still, and let the earth be still along with me. And
in that stillness we will find the peace of God. It is within
my heart, which witnesses to God Himself.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
That is 5 stills, mind you. Catch me a message here?
Michele, i’m so glad you were able to scurry and not stay still! And glad the structures were okay, too. But sorry you missed your Clamping. Sounds very easy and fun. No boiling water to wash dishes. Hope you get a do-over! I suppose you remembered the brownies!
Lesson 209
(1) (189) I feel the Love of God within me now.
Read carefully, this lesson tells us that the Love of God is always present in us.
The Love of God is what created me. The Love of God is everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son. The Love of God within me sets me free.
Jesus of course refers to the mind, not the physical/psychological self. The Love of God is within my right mind, which I learn to choose–The purpose of A Course in Miracles
(2) (199) I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 210
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(190) I choose the joy of God instead of pain.
Pain is my own idea. It is not a Thought of God, but one I
thought apart from Him and from His Will. His Will is joy,
and only joy for His beloved Son. And that I choose, instead
of what I made.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Oh my gosh, this site was offline for a couple hours. I’d try and come up with search results . . . It was an eery deja vu. Pain made up by me, for me, silly me.
Lesson 211
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(191) I am the holy Son of God Himself.
In silence and in true humility I seek God’s glory, to behold
it in the Son whom He created as my Self.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
In true humility i am grateful this site exists. I figured it was the host server being down for some un-gnome reason like sunspots. But, still, ithere was a possibility that this little place where even a light trail of crumbs was sprinkled had stopped. And i missed it and everyone desperately! But now I know that lawrence is resting and reading, and that is fine!
I am grateful this work exists, so that we might meet in these places that might not exist otherwise. And all my thanks to Kenneth, as always. And my thanks to all of you, of course.
In fact, the gnomes gnowingly did this on purpose, simply so we could receive a message from Papa Lawrence! Hey, good to see you, dear brother. We all hope you’re well, or well enough. Now that’s an interesting idea, ‘well enough’. Enough to what? To accept Love, I guess. Now, who could that possibly exclude?
These review lessons really, really bothered me the first time I did them. I think on a certain level I had hit my limit of what Jesus was asking me to accept on blind faith. And he was asking me to declare ‘I’m not this body’ over and over and over again, like a mantra.
Over time, as I’ve worked with Ken, I can see why this is the only statement in the book that’s repeated more than twenty times. Basically, it’s our declaration of release, the reason the miracle works, the reason that Atonement is true, and Love is real. There’s a line that says, If God is real, pain is not; if pain is real, God is not. We could say the same thing about Love and the body. If Love is real, the body is not; if the body is real, Love is not.
All our learning, and all Ken’s teaching comes to shifting our attention away from a body focus back to a mind focus. That’s where the entire (seeming) problem is, and where the escape from the non-existent problem occurs. It’s where holiness lies, OUR holiness. It’s got nothing to do with a body. Bodies cannot be holy if they are just images on a screen. But, honestly, I mean really, honestly, how many times a day do I think I’m not this body??? I mean, really KNOW I’m not this body. Or at least willing to entertain the idea seriously for five minutes, and put absolutely all my other needs, preferences, requestions, demands, requirements, searchings to the side, just for a few minutes.
Then I suggest to my mind, And what if absolutely none of these needs were true or real, not mine AND not those of all the people around me, or those even of society at large? What if no one had any real body needs? That would change our level of anxiety a lot, I think. We’re really worried pretty much all the time about our needs, the needs of our loved ones, or those of society, or even those of people in a foreign country. We’re always worried about PEOPLE. And those people are always in BODIES.
What if they, as well, are not bodies, either? Then our meditation would become:
“They are not bodies, they are free, for they are as God created them.”
Or “My son is not a body, he is free…”
And “My sick and aging mom is not a body, she is free…”
“That little girl I heard about in the news is not a body, she is free…”
But the one that REALY scares me is the one suggested in the lesson.
What if I, yes, me, what if I’m not a body at all, and this body-act is just a fake?
No one is ever worried or suffering for the reason they think. We’re all making it up as we go. We’re all totally free. There is no real suffering in the world. There is suffering, but not for the reasons we think. And that suffering, ultimately, is not real. That’s what undoes the guilt. No crime, no suffering, no sin, no punishment. And the dream of having harmed Love disappears, and we’re free to see that we never left Its fold.
Lesson 212
(192)I have a function God would have me fill.
I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain illusions of the world. Only the function God has given me can offer freedom. Only this I seek, and only this will I accept as mine.
All together now….” F O R G I V E N E S S “
Caught up with everyone with this final review in the workbook.
Read a post on facebook today, where a friend shared that she watched a TVprogram about Phantom pains in a removed leg – and her insight that the pain could NOT be in the body/the removed leg – ergo was it in the mind only – which projected it into a nonexistent physical bodypart – I love this so much.
onward and …. well…. onwards
Yay, Michele! Yea, Tex! Remember the picture from the Monastery of the line of monks (and monkinis) carrying candles? That will be us doing the beauteous prayers of Part II together — still, I kinda hear it maybe to a reggae beat . . . . (What?! Have i no reverence?)
Nina, you’ve come up with another really great thought. I completely forgot all about the phenomenon of phantom pains. I was just reading in this little blue book (lesson 132), and I’m really trying to understand that ALL pain is phantom pain. It appears that, in reality, since we are not at all these bodies but pure spirit, there is no pain at all. Pain is totally unknown. We had to imagine bodies in order to imagine pain! So, an imaginary pain that comes from an imaginary body in an imaginary state outside of perfect mind, that’s what we’re all living here.
I’ve read these kinds of lines in the Course umpteen times, and I see that I always read them with my eyes glazing over the lines, yes, yes, nice sentiment, pretty thoughts, etc. But it would appear that it’s trying to teach us something that’s actually a true and real state, not just a nice thought. But my mind is so entirely convinced to the core that pain is an ontological reality that the words don’t actually make it past a certain barrier.
So then I go ahead with my day blithely condemning everyone who would hurt other innocent people (just watch some TV documentaries on certain countries where men mistreat women, children and animals). This then reinforces the thought system of imaginary bodies and our separation from reality in pure spirit. This is a terribly hard path we are trying to follow. It is asking us to realize that not only is our own pain imaginary, but the pain of other people, too. That’s a very difficult one for me.
I’ve heard Ken say many times that we have to have as much compassion for the victimizers as for the victims. We’re all in this same miserable imaginary boat, feeling exiled and pursued, and that’s why we’re all so aggressive. Okay, maybe I can learn to appreciate the victimizers’ deep suffering. But then he goes on to ask us something even more difficult, but ever so important.
He asks us to see that the suffering of the victims is self-chosen and intentional – be they men, women, children or animals. Wow. The victims are not just suffering because they are being brutally and uncaringly treated by others. There is something else going on behind their pain. Firstly, on a certain level they have chosen a script in their play where this would happen to them (already a little difficult for a part of me to believe, in all honesty, but I can see metaphysically how that might be true).
But then even more importantly, in order to actually have the psychological experience of suffering, we must share the purpose of suffering. People must want to suffer in order to feel pain. If that desire is not there, we cannot feel pain. Misery is foremost a sign that we have chosen to be separate from the mind to be housed within a body: those who identify purely with spirit do not experience suffering. Pain is then an indication of the intention to accuse others for that separated, bodily condition. Someone must pay the price for separation, since it is perceived as a terrible thing, and everyone’s goal is to make sure that he is not the one who will have to face God and pay it.
Those who suffer are actually saying, ‘You deserve to die in my place, and I hope you do! That way I’ll be saved.’ In this way, the victims are actually sharing the same murderous intent as the victimizers, by participating in the experience of pain, and then demonstrating it to others. Peace and joy are always constant, perfect states within our reach. The deep inner wish of those who suffer is to see the murderers murdered. A way of saying to this vengeful metaphysical being in our minds we call God, please take this other person in my place. Now that’s extremely hard for me to see. And if we were honest, I think that would be very hard for anyone to see.
It is very easy for me to understand why I have such a hard time seeing this: I still don’t see my suffering as really any kind of choice. How could it be that all my experiences of pain, all of them, are purely my wish? Okay, some of my little itsy-bitsy pains might be a silly choice, yes. But not that deep pain that accompanies me on a daily basis and seems to be experienced everywhere in my daily life: a nagging feeling that I’m failing professionally, a deep-seated anxiety that I won’t get everything done in this life-time, that some danger is waiting for me today that I must defend against, that my loved ones don’t really, truly appreciate me, etc. I don’t see the ‘pain of life’ as any kind of choice, with a freedom from that experience right there offered to me in this precise instant.
Were I actually to see that all my suffering was completely a self-chosen, willful choice, that would undo a huge part of my being. That would undo my world totally. My life has been based on my perception of myself as someone who has suffered, is suffering today, and is probably going to continue to suffer to a certain extent in the future. Undoing that concept of suffering would entirely undo my self-concept and my past. It would also leave me with a very strange concept of the future. My thinking with respect to the future is all centered around the idea of future comfort and health (to avoid physical pain), and future success in my finances and relationships (to avoid psychological pain). If pain were no longer any kind of issue, because my mind is completely identified with a place where there is only perfect peace, then, then… what happens to all my carefully planned strategies? My little life would disappear entirely.
But I cannot avoid this next step. I must learn to face the fact that all experience of pain is my choice. Why?
The problem is, while we still insist that there are people suffering unjustly and against their will (people like me), we will always be taking sides with the victims. They are the poor ones! (I am the poor one!) This means we will always be taking sides against the victimizers. Once we have done this, we have become murderers as well, as we have said above. That’s the hitch. We cannot be victims and suffer without becoming murderers ourselves. We all know that terrible line, “Behold me, brother, at your hand I die.” The intent behind this kind of declaration is that our brother be accused of being the murderer, and so die in our place. Not pretty.
In order to free ourselves from all this insanity, we are going to have to take a radical step. We are going to have to more seriously consider the possibility that all our pain is phantom pain. All of it. There was never a moment when I suffered when it was not phantom pain I was experiencing, pain that was willfully chosen, albeit on an unconscious level. Which means that I never really suffered. Ever. Which also means, by extension, that no one else ever suffered either, except by his or her own free-will and decision. It was all phantom pain – everywhere. The body part is not there. Because the body is not really there. It has no ontological substance, despite a seemingly solid appearance. Just think of all those lessons “I am not a body, I am free”. It was all smoke and mirrors, right from the beginning of time. It is currently all smoke and mirrors. It is simply the extension, or projection, of a concept and wish for separation and pain onto the misty and uncertain scenes and shapes in this mysterious world.
But before we do a guilt trip on ourselves, we have to know that the problem is not the suffering itself, but the intent to suffer. There will always be some level of suffering in this world, while we believe we’re here. The body was made as a very uncomfortable vehicle and it will rarely feel that its required level of comfort or health is being met. What we want to start to look at is when we are willfully participating in that perception of ourselves as suffering, calling the body’s discomfort or condition ‘suffering’. “Suffering is an emphasis upon all that the world has done to injure you,” from Chapter 27 helps us understand the gist of this idea. It is the special prominence, or the intentional selecting out of our injuries, in order to have them retain our mind’s attention, which we do to exclude the presence of Love from our minds.
We just want to begin by looking at how this dynamic plays out in our daily lives with the small pains and discomforts. I’m a victim of the vegetable peeler or the grater – it’s responsible for my feeling this pain. I’m a victim of the traffic today. I’m a victim of this society that makes me work more hours than I want to. I’m a victim of the economy. I’m a victim of my husband who just can’t learn how to do the most basic things in the house (after thirty years). We just want to start to look at that little itsy-bitsy statement underneath that says, ‘I want this pain’. And then we smile. That’s all we do. We’ve found the insanity in our minds, and we no longer want to go along with it.
We smile – that’s so important. Because it means we don’t grimace. If we see our wish to suffer and grimace, we’ve fallen into the trap. We’ve judged ourselves as bad and wrong. No, we just learn to laugh and smile, and that’s all. The solution to the world of phantom pain is so terribly easy. Smiling at a pain that is self-chosen is the most remarkably spiritual thing we could ever do. It undoes the problem of separation, the problem of this entire physical universe at the source: the taking seriously of the mad idea of separation.
In this very simple way, we allow our minds to return back into Eternity, where all is perfectly one and wholly serene.
Wow Nina! You got our Mayor on a Role…I love it!
alongside katrina movin to a reggae beat … love it
Lesson 213
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(193) All things are lessons God would have me learn.
A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of
thoughts I made that hurt me. /b> What I learn of Him becomes
the way I am set free. And so I choose to learn His lessons
and forget my own.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Forgivin’ ~~ remembrin’ — i made up all the hurtin’ for me ~~~
Oopsie with closing the bold html. Somehow appropriate with the reggae close. I swear, no brownies!
Nouk Sanchez heard this prayer from Holy Spirit:
Holy Spirit, help from using x to punish myself and keep myself from Love/Self.
In the Way of Mastery, Jesus uses the image of pebbles we allow to be dropped into the mind/Self – and as we notice the kind of pebbles we allow, w also notice how we have chosen them. And they will color our kind of life. He tells us that as students we choose both kind of pebbles – unlimited loving ones and catastrphic – and that the only difference b etween Jesus and us is that he chooses ONLY the unlimited ones. And that each time we accept an unlimited one “I think I am going to have a cold” – we ARE choosing our life/pain each time we are not releasing those little thoughts, but just accepting them into what we call us.
At least for me, this sound simple enough to understand – and makes even more determined to let go of the pebbles with wrongminded thoughts.
Correction: the first line is “H.S. help me forgive myself for using x to etc.
Ha:) one second after I finished that post, I went to the Facebook group for 6-month certification for Course-teachers and found this:
Werner Erhard’s Ideas and Applications
“To take a stand that you are cause in the matter contrasts with it being your fault, or that you failed, or that you are to blame, or even that you did it.
That you are the cause of everything in your life is a place to stand from which to view and deal with life – a place that exists solely as a matter of your choice. The stand that one is cause in the matter is a declaration, not an assertion of fact. It simply says, “you can count on me (and I can count on you) to look and deal with life from the perspective of my being cause in the matter.”
When you have taken the stand (declared) that you are cause in the matter of your life it means that you give up the right to assign cause to the circumstances, or to others. That is, you give up the right to be a victim. You also give up the right to assign cause to the waxing and waning of your state of mind – all of which, while undoubtedly soothing, leave you helpless (at the effect of).
Lesson 214
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(194) I place the future in the Hands of God.
The past is gone; the future is not yet. Now am I freed
from both. For what God gives can only be for good. And
I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
This lesson always calms me. I am always at peace when i am still in now. Only anticipation of woe disturbs me. This lesson lets me rest in God’s plan. Tonite my son and i watched the movie Heaven Is Real. I had mixed impressions of it, not like As It Is In Heaven. But, still, it was a pretty good expression of faith growing. And afterwards, listening to my son talk about his faith was a miracle.
Honest truth here… I misread the lesson and thought it said
What God gives can only be for FOOD!
Well…. yeah….that still works!
Katrina-I happend to watch the Heaven is Real (Greg Kinnear) this past weekend. Could have been done so much better-is that what you mean by mixed impressions? I felt like Greg Kinnear did someone a huge favor. The little boy was sweet and did a great job but the script too loose. Ok, enough of the criticism…I’m happy to hear it was a bonding moment with you and your son. Knowing that redeems the movie for me now. I need to subscribe to Netflix and watch ‘As it is in Heaven’ so I can chime in on that one too. Anil aren’t you in charge of setting up our monthly movie review?
Nina-Good posts 522 &524. It’s a nicer way of saying what Ken would remind us of…”there is no one else out there”, still a mind blowing concept that I haven’t fully embraced. But it makes sense that if I did-it would be the fastest way to get up the proverbial ladder. I think the pebble collecting suggestion Jesus introduces gives us visual learners a solid start to Mastery. I have always been attracted to pretty rocks and all things pretty (: Which of course is where the discernment comes in doesn’t it? It’s not the form but the content. Oh, that again (:
This mind training- to see with our inner eye, third eye, HS eye, cyclops eye, you name it- takes what?…a few hundred, maybe thousand lifetimes? The journey with no destination-beginning and ending in the Now has already been done? The pebbles have been separated into their appropriate piles…the question is why do I mess up the piles and start all over again each day? I don’t remember messing them up…I still think each morning I wake up to this mess. Today I shall put in place a hidden camera. Tomorrow I will see that it was me. Then one day -maybe even today, I will forgive myself and really mean it.
Reminds me of the saying-“love you” “mean it”…or is that only said in Hollywood?
Food-It’s a Good Thing!
You make me Smile Tex (:
Lesson 215
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
(195) Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. He walks with me in love. And I give thanks to Him for showing me the way to go.
Gratitude has been an important theme, and Jesus returns to it here. It is difficult to be grateful for learning we are wrong and do not know anything. Yet that is the lesson we wish to learn if we are to return home. Thus our gratitude is to Him Who teaches us, and Whose Love gently guides us.
Lesson 216
I am not a body. I am Free. For I am still as God created me.
(196) It can be but myself I crucify.
All that I do I do unto myself. If I attack, I suffer. But if I forgive, salvation will be given me.
This is a key theme throughout A Course in Miracles: Others can not affect me in any way unless I give them that power, making them victimizing figures in order to justify my face of innocence. Thus they are responsible for my pain, until the holy instant of sanity comes when I forgive them for what they have never done.
Bernard completely in depth view of the whole suffering phantom suffering quagmire never written out like this before by anyone for me to see beautifully done and so true
Wow I’m up in Sandpoint Idaho with my dear wonderful friend Madeline I’ve known since we toured India,since we started studying Kathak together and on my iPhone I can dictate my entry into the village what a fabulous discovery!
She’s roasting kale that she just picked from the garden in the oven and we are going to have such wonderful time it’s so peaceful where they live just beautiful and peaceful I wish I could post pictures on the site
Lesson 217
I am not a body. I am Free. For I am still as God created me.
(197) It can be but my gratitude I earn.
Who should give thanks for my salvation but myself?
And How but through salvation can I find the Self to Whom my thanks are due?
This continues Jesus’ emphasis on the importance of recognizing we have a mind and are not bodies. In A Course in Miracles, salvation, means being saved from my decision to be guilty. I am the one who chose wrongly, and therefore I am the one who can choose correctly by asking my new Teacher for help. I am thus grateful to my decision-making self for choosing salvation instead of crucifixion.
Annie thanks for posting the lesson from journey through the workbook every day I meant to copy my lessons for each day I was away but didn’t and luckily I check in here at the village and it’s here!
Hey Cutie! I returned to the Village after my morning prayer to comment to you Michele and here you are! I am happy to help with the daily lesson plan for the next few days but I too will be getting away come Thursday afternoon and spending the weekend down in Huntington Beach. I will have my phone but I really hate to type on it…and I haven’t tried the Suri dictation. I think she would fail with the bolding and italic requirements that for some reason are so important to me!!! Ha ha.
Anywho, I Googled Sandpoint Idaho and it looks spectacular…so no worries on us not having photo albums set up at the Village…although I loved going thru peoples albums and catching up on the latest youtube crazes.
So did you drive the 15 hours or fly to Idaho? Did you pack your brownies?
Will you be back in time for your daughters Birthday? Whose watching the kitties?
Write when you can-always love hearing from you.
Remember, these pieces of information are vital for my climbing up the ladder to heavens door. Please don’t deny me♡
How totally darling Annie that is so great I loved all your boys watching the kitties did I bring brownies no my friend makes your own here brownies and cookies she such a great gardener on every level and lake ponder ray is so big and beautiful city won’t spell Pend Oreille right my neighbor my next-door neighbors watching my kitties my downstairs neighbors going to water my dick garden and don’t worry about the lessons when you’re away I was just happy to see what there was.
Would you look at that Siri knows how to spell Lake Pend Oreille in Sandpoint Idaho how totally cool love to everyone bye for now
How funny, Annie — of course, I immediately googled Sand Point, Idaho, too! Michele, Lake Pend Orielle is gorgeous — such a unique and interesting name – seems French? A co-worker retired to that area a few years back — as I recall it is real close to the Canadian border. It is incredibly beautiful and rugged. What a wonderful vacation getaway.
Don’t worry about missing the lesson. I check in most mornings, and if Annie hasn’t posted it yet, I will do it. Annie, you get up wayyyy before me. I sometimes get way laid by my little beauty, but i can get a cut and paste in, i’m sure. I think i must want to come back next year and see the little trail of lessons laid down. I like the casual, not trying to teach anything of it. The non-seriousness of it, as though doing my lesson is the same as taking that first deep breathe and stretching, just a murmur to remember who we are doing this with. The rules and timings enlist our ego’s oc nature, so we will DO it — so that isn’t bad, but ummmm, next year. This year – easy does it. I promised Tex, i think. And it is so hot there in Texas.
I laughed my head off this morning looking at what I thought I had been spelt right but I looked without my glasses yesterday and learn my downstairs neighbor was watering what was supposed to be my deck Garden lets see if she spells it right this time.
Ok Michele, before I begin my morning lesson I did need to make one comment about your “dick garden”.
So either Suri is not all that or there is something about you we didn’t know?
It does make for a good laugh …Suri spelling Lake Pend Oreille correctly but then “F’s up on I’m presuming, deck garden (:
I guess Anil is sticking to his guns or wrestling with temptation to not comment on that one.
Maybe yesterdays TV debate on Scotland’s Independence (heard Salmon was smoked) distracted Richard from commenting.
And Papa Lawrence – no need to read up on missed posts just throw us one of your stories…Miss you!
Seems like all the men have left the Village ):
Morning Michele…you weren’t there when I started typing my post!!!
I will get on with the Lesson of the Day!
Lesson 218
I am not a body. I am Free. For I am still as God created me.
(198) Only my condemnation injures me.
My condemnation keeps my vision dark, and through my sightless eyes I cannot see the vision of my glory. Yet today I can behold this glory and be glad.
My vision is not dark because of what you have done to me; nor is my unhappiness a result of your mercilessness and abuse. They are the result of a choice I have made, and therefore one I can undo. As easily as I chose the blindness of condemnation, I can choose the vision of forgiveness.
That’s why I have my neighbor watering my dick garden because all the men have left the village!
Ha Ha!
No accident-Suri is just helping out.
BTW – I did change my Suri’s voice to an English Butler.
He’s such a dick!
Annie I miss you, and all the the fair ladies whose spirit for life, true life, shines through and it matters not if your joking or being serious. Michele your post 388 I read last night for the first time. It was Beautiful and so moving. You shared it with family so no worries.
I will get around to a story, I miss writing them. Life so often tries to steal what is universal from us and tries to leave us with only specialness. It is the universal that we are, it is the One that we are. There may not be many in our village but the sound our heart strings play is eternal music.
I have missed it, and I have never been so busy juggling crazy things in my life. I don’t allow myself much, but I feel the need to be here. Our Nina knew I would be back, I will always try to be here there is a healing of the spirit here. Our bodies, well that’s another thing. It has been a hard few years with losing such bright lights, but they now brighten our path and add yet more light for us to see.
I didn’t mention the men as we are tough guys don’t you know. It is funny but in the working world I found myself working with mostly women. It took them awhile to see if I was real or not, no hidden agenda etc. and after that we were just family. I will keep in touch and try to stick a story in soon.
Bernard much thanks again for all you do, you are a gentle and bright light my brother.
God bless us every One
Papa lawrence
annie … that’s funny … I tried the same thing with my GPS in my car … I switched the voice to this english butler guy … he really was annoying, he never seemed sure about where we were going or how to get there
once I switched the voice back to the girl GPS, we had already been calling her VENUS, it was great … her voice was ever so much a better guide
all the talk and news here is about the big storms headed to the islands
this morning I snorkeled … in the calm before the storms …
there is this absolutely darling pink with red polka dots spanish dancer snail thing … what a fun discovery
there is this dragon fish guy with big dragon wings that spread wide open with little tiny sharp thorns all along the wings
the turtles and the fish are all amazing
happy to see so much activity in the village
the day it went off line was a bit of a deja vu shock
reminds us all of the preciousness of all
Lesson 219
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(199) I am not a body. I am free.
I am God’s Son. Be still, my mind, and think a moment
upon this. And then return to earth, without confusion
as to what my Father loves forever as His Son.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
From Ken’s Journey Through the Workbook…
We are to ask the decision maker in our minds to think about the truth that we are God’s Son, and not the ego’s. We know we have chosen wrongly whenever we feel pain in any form, are in distress, or believe in the importance of our specialness needs. We forget the purpose for our relationships and for being a student of A Course in Miracles. This purpose of forgiveness is renewed each time we choose to have the Holy Spirit be our Teacher.
We have seen repeatedly that the focus of the lessons is on our minds, wherein is found the correction of the holy instant. We then return our attention to the world and its daily demands, but differently from before. We engage the world now with a clear understanding of our purpose – not to have our needs met at another’s expense, but to remind us of our Identity as God’s one Son: mind, not body. Our purpose in doing these review lessons, therefore, is to bring our mistaken thoughts about our purpose to the corrected one: from the body’s attacks to the mind’s forgiveness.
“Juggling crazy” – I know what you mean Papa!
Spanish dancer snail…so flashy… it’s moving nice and slow so you can do a double take!
How lovely to still be discovering Hawaii’s beauty.
Then again maybe the news of Iselle coming has all God’s creatures looking for higher ground.
I read somewhere it will be the first Hurricane to hit Hawaii in 22 years.
Sending protective light over your abode and give Mama an extra hug from the Village.
I had yesterday off and had all day to get ready for our family weekend getaway. I never left the house. I did however finish all the laundry, and most of the ironing-yes-I iron (:
my friend always gives me grief if I even mention it…but who doesn’t love an ironed garment?
And FYI I don’t iron my bedding- well – just the top sheet-the first 6inches or so (the border that folds over the blanket) (: That feeling of sleeping in newly washed sheets and the crispness of that border as I lay me hands to rest…aaaahhh. I so enjoy life’s little luxuries.
Have a great day my friends,
Talk to you soon!
Well, Good Morning Katrina.
I guess I don’t refresh my page before I start typing cuz again, you be here before me this morning and I didn’t know it 🙂
I was just gonna type out lesson 220- I guess I am wanting this ‘I am not a body lesson’ to be
finished already!
I’ve had a tickle in my throat these past few days – I will be super mad if it turns ugly while I’m on my mini-vacation.
Another opportunity to bring “the body’s attacks to the mind of forgiveness”.
I don’t know what that feels or looks like so I guess the best way to start is to just be STILL.
Recently did a lot of traveling on trains, and practiced seeing the people that I came in contact with as Christ.
I discovered this thought as miraculous – again and again: “Holy Son of God, give me your blessing.”
A German family of 4 was settling in with me. A couple in their late thirties, with one little guy about 1,5 ,and an older brother, maybe 10-12. The mother looked paranoid, did not greet me, mumbled that these seats were impossible, they could NOT drive here. She looked like on the brink of falling apart.
The toddler was placed right across me, and started to kick my shin methodically and hard. It was easy to see that it was just nervous energy, but it hurt anyway so I asked kindly (while seething inside) if they could maybe move him. They looked like I spoke from a foreign planet.
Then I remembered: They are only mirroring what I have judged in my mind. A sweet calm came, and I heard myself thinking: “ Holy Son of God, give me your blessing” – becoming aware of their true nature.
It took maybe ½ a minute. Then the children stood up, the father removed the little hyperactive one and smiled at me. The mother stood up and walked to a window, her body radiated peace and great joy. She turned and looked at us – and me – and her smile came from Home. I sensed something old melting – the old paranoia maybe? And from that moment I thought this prayer, the 5 of us danced a perfectly choreographed dance: we were danced with. It was amazing to witness its beauty and the order of it.
My second seatpartner was a Japanese businesswoman with a travel-PC. She did not look at me, was frowning and busy, and outside the train was the most marvelous landscape. I prayed the same prayer. A seat beside us became free, she brought her PC over there, let her hair down, closed the PC and started to look out the window. What was so sweet was the feeling of connection between us – as we were really siblings and had known each other for always. We often looked across the aisle at the other and just smiled.
After coming home and having slept here 2 nights now, I wake up in the morning and notice the old familiar depression and gloom -and then, after just one second, it feels like a curtain is drawn away, and there is a field of calm and tremendous eternal JOY present.