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 261
God is my refuge and security.
I will identify with what I think is refuge and security. I will behold myself where I perceive my strength, and think I live within the citadel where I am safe and cannot be attacked. Let me today seek not security in danger, nor attempt to find my peace in murderous attack. I live in God. In Him I find my refuge and my strength. In Him is my Identity. In Him is everlasting peace. And only there will I remember Who I really am.
Let me not seek for idols. I would come, my Father, home to You today. I choose to be as You created me, and find the Son whom You created as my Self.
Ken’s JTTWB:
This is the truth; but be attentive during the day to how frequently you strive to confirm the belief that you live in the body, to say nothing of the special relationships you think are your places of safety. Again, you must realize that these will never bring you happiness or peace, for only within the innocence of Christ, remembered through forgiveness, is found the peace and strength of God:
“Walk you in glory, with your head held high, and fear no evil. The innocent are safe because they share their innocence. Nothing they see is harmful, for their awareness of the truth releases everything from the illusion of harmfulness. And what seemed harmful now stands shining in their innocence, released from sin and fear and happily returned to love. They share the strength of love because they looked on innocence. And every error disappeared because they saw it not. Who looks for glory finds it where it is. Where could it be but in the innocent? (T- 23.in.3)”
Katrina, 645:”There IS another road I could take at that time of day, and if i paid attention to the time I could take it, so possibly my fury is at my overlooking that and choosing this route and getting stuck. ”
Oh. Hilarious. Thanks. Reminds me of that story about the woman who walks down the street and falls into the same hole until she doesn’t LOL
I NEVER do these things. What ARE you talking about. I mean really. Grow up, all of you, be as me ROFLMAO
In other words: thanks a lot for excellent examples
big hug
Lesson 262
Let me perceive no differences today.
Father, You have one Son. And it is he that I would look upon today. He is Your one creation. Why should I perceive a thousand forms in what remains as one? Why should I give this one a thousand names, when only one suffices? For Your Son must bear Your Name, for You created him. Let me not see him as a stranger to his Father, nor as stranger to myself. For he is part of me and I of him, and we are part of You Who are our Source, eternally united in Your Love; eternally the holy Son of God.
We who are one would recognize this day the truth about ourselves. We would come home, and rest in unity. For there is peace, and nowhere else can peace be sought and found.
Lesson 263
My holy vision sees all things as pure.
Father, Your Mind created all that is, Your Spirit entered into it, Your Love gave life to it. And would I look upon what You created as if it could be made sinful? I would not perceive such dark and fearful images. A madman’s dream is hardly fit to be my choice, instead of all the loveliness with which You blessed creation; all its purity, its joy, and its eternal, quiet home in You.
And while we still remain outside the gate of Heaven, let us look on all we see through holy vision and the eyes of Christ. Let all appearances seem pure to us, that we may pass them by in innocence, and walk together to our Father’s house as brothers and the holy Sons of God.
Lesson 267
My heart is beating in the peace of God.
There walks with me
The Light that Heaven looks on as itself.
I am a Son of God. My name is His.
My Father’s house is where my stillness is.
(The Gifts of God, p.59)
L.267,(1:4-7) “Each heartbeat brings me peace; each breath infuses me with strength. I am a messenger of God, directed by His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace within His loving Arms.”
Lesson 268
Let all things be exactly as they are.
If God created his Son perfect, that is how you must learn to see him to learn of his reality. And as part of the Sonship, that is how you must see yourself to learn of yours. (T-10.V.12:4-6).
Lesson 269
My sight goes forth to look upon Christ’s face.
(1:1-2)I ask Your blessing on my sight today. It is the means which You have chosen to become the way to show me my mistakes, and look beyond them.
Lesson 270
I will not use the body’s eyes today.
I read this Lesson 270 in the late hours of the morning today, after a frantic rush to get to it (having left my iPad mini behind in Singapore),I have been relying on hotel computers and printouts to read my lessons since Saturday last.
And as I read it, in my frantic condition, a peace descended on my heart, it felt very solid, and the buzzing of thoughts in my head very distant.
Christ vision is powerful indeed, even though I cannot claim to have experienced it, certainly not in full, but even the briefest introduction to it touched my heart and made it very fulfilled and soundly so.
I don’t know if these words mean anything, I am just writing as I am wont to do, but the solidity in my heart has not lessened, some outbursts of irritation notwithstanding during the course of the day, and as I set out on the streets of Bombay to take in the warm humid air, and perahps a late dinner or a movie, I am grateful for this lesson, Lesson 270.
I will not use the body’s eyes today.
The quet of today has blessed my heart, and through it, peace has come to almost everyone I met today. Christ is my eyes today…..
Section 6. What is the Christ?
Christ is God’s Son as He created Him. He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well. He is the Thought which still abides within the Mind that is His Source. He has not left His holy home, nor lost the innocence in which He was created. He abides unchanged forever in the Mind of God.
Christ is the link that keeps you one with God, and guarantees that separation is no more than an illusion of despair, for hope forever will abide in Him. Your mind is part of His, and His of yours. He is the part in which God’s Answer lies; where all decisions are already made, and dreams are over. He remains untouched by anything the body’s eyes perceive. For though in Him His Father placed the means for your salvation, yet does He remain the Self Who, like His Father, knows no sin.
Home of the Holy Spirit, and at home in God alone, does Christ remain at peace within the Heaven of your holy mind. This is the only part of you that has reality in truth. The rest is dreams. Yet will these dreams be given unto Christ, to fade before His glory and reveal your holy Self, the Christ, to you at last.
The Holy Spirit reaches from the Christ in you to all your dreams, and bids them come to Him, to be translated into truth. He will exchange them for the final dream which God appointed as the end of dreams. For when forgiveness rests upon the world and peace has come to every Son of God, what could there be to keep things separate, for what remains to see except Christ’s face?
And how long will this holy face be seen, when it is but the symbol that the time for learning now is over, and the goal of the Atonement has been reached at last? So therefore let us seek to find Christ’s face and look on nothing else. As we behold His glory, will we know we have no need of learning or perception or of time, or anything except the holy Self, the Christ Whom God created as His Son.
Lesson 271
Christ’s is the vision I will use today.
Each day, each hour, every instant, I am choosing what I want to look upon, the sounds I want to hear, the witnesses to what I want to be the truth for me. Today I choose to look upon what Christ would have me see, to listen to God’s Voice, and seek the witnesses to what is true in God’s creation. In Christ’s sight, the world and God’s creation meet, and as they come together all perception disappears. His kindly sight redeems the world from death, for nothing that He looks on but must live, remembering the Father and the Son; Creator and creation unified.
>i>Father, Christ’s vision is the way to You. What He beholds invites Your memory to be restored to me. And this I choose, to be what I would look upon today.
Well, yes I did! I posted the whole thing. Because I’m barely awake and cannot be discerning!
Anil, today (here) it is our Mothers’ birthday. I think you are just waving goodbye to it. Today we only see the Christ. How easy and how wonderful!
Hi Family, just a note to let you know I’m still here. I’m on lesson 310 today .
Love you !
Excellent Katrina!…the I cannot be discerning 🙂
And I envisioned a dove just above you Anil as you spoke of a peace descending…
the Catholic version with its wings opened in full, with rays of yellow light. (aka the Holy Spirit) …I felt its calmness too as it parted the masses through the streets of Bombay and arrived sweetly here upon the golden pages of the Village.
The words you posted were perfectly understandable.
This quote (T-14.III.4:1-2,4,6,) from the Journey Through the Workbook is bringing it down to basics for me today.
Each day, each hour and minute, even each second, you are deciding between the crucifixion and the resurrection: between the ego and the Holy spirit. The ego is the choice for guilt: the Holy spirit the choice for guitlessness…there are no alternatives except truth and illusion…You are guilty or guiltless, bound or free, unhappy or happy.
Lesson 272
How can illusions satisfy God’s Son?
Today we pass illusions by. And if we hear temptation call to us to stay and linger in a dream, we turn aside and ask ourselves if we, the Sons of God, could be content with dreams, when Heaven can be chosen just as easily as hell, and love will happily replace all fear.
Brothers and Sisters each day a step closer to Home…Let’s Carry On!
From JTTWB, some favorite thoughts —
We have begun the journey. Long ago the end was written in the stars and set into the Heavens with a shining Ray that held it safe within eternity and through all time as well. And holds it still; unchanged, unchanging and un- changeable (C-ep.2:4-6).
(1:3-8) Can dreams content me? Can illusions bring me happiness? What but Your memory can swish? Your Son? I will accept no less than You have given me. I am surrounded by Your Love, forever still, forever gentle and forever safe. God’s Son must be as You created him.
Annie, thank you so much for holding the devotion to the only meaningful blog in life. And Hedda, I love knowing you blaze a trail before us, getting those Great Rays all lit up for us to trundle into!
Lesson 273
The stillness of the peace of God is mine.
From JTTWB:
Jesus asks that we not pretend we are spiritual giants: “I know you are not ready for a day of undisturbed tranquility and peace…
It just floors me when J blurts out such truths!
Firstly, because his honesty is completely and refreshingly simple.
Let’s keep it simple.
Secondly, the level of gentleness and kindness to stick with me through the insanity humbles me like nothing else…and the heart melts and I didn’t even realize it was frozen.
“I am grateful you are right and I am wrong”.
I read that line silently to myself – its been written there for me plenty of times. I realized that I should be saying it out loud and hear my own voice saying those words…and then J won’t need to prompt me.
The Gifts of God left unopened…let me remember my eternal love for You and reclaim the peace which you gave Your Son.
Here in CT with my daughter …grateful for your lesson posting.
Lesson 274
Today belongs to love. Let me not fear.
Father, today I would let all things be as You created them, and give Your Son the honor due his sinlessness; the love of brother to his brother and his Friend. Through this I am redeemed. Through this as well the truth will enter where illusions were, light will replace all darkness, and Your Son will know he is as You created him.
A special blessing comes to us today, from Him Who is our Father. Give this day to Him, and there will be no fear today, because the day is given unto love.
Lesson 275
God’s healing Voice protects all things today.
Let us today attend the Voice for God, which speaks an ancient lesson, no more true today than any other day. Yet has this day been chosen as the time when we will seek and hear and learn and understand. Join me in hearing. For the Voice for God tells us of things we cannot understand alone, nor learn apart. It is in this that all things are protected. And in this the healing of the Voice for God is found.
Your healing Voice protects all things today, and so I leave all things to You. I need be anxious over nothing. For Your Voice will tell me what to do and where to go; to whom to speak and what to say to him, what thoughts to think, what words to give the world. The safety that I bring is given me. Father, Your Voice protects all things through me.
Your healing Voice protects
I need be anxious over nothing.
Your Voice will tell me
what to do
where to go
whom to speak to
what to say to him
thoughts to think
words to give !
[As a Course student, i think i am supposed to have this memorized.
(Not really a thought that’s been given me, more a noticing that everyone else seems to have.)]
What if I imagined (thought?) this is really already going on?
I’d still hear or see the ego’s view
But I can choose to check out the HS’s view.
Lesson 276
The Word of God is given me to speak.
What is the Word of God? “My Son is pure and holy as Myself.” And thus did God become the Father of the Son He loves, for thus was he created. This the Word His Son did not create with Him, because in this His Son was born. Let us accept His Fatherhood, and all is given us. Deny we were created in His Love and we deny our Self, to be unsure of Who we are, of Who our Father is, and for what purpose we have come. And yet, we need but to acknowledge Him Who gave His Word to us in our creation, to remember Him and so recall our Self.
Father, Your Word is mine. And it is this that I would speak to all my brothers, who are given me to cherish as my own, as I am loved and blessed and saved by You.
Blessings to All.
Katrina I smiled when I saw todays lesson already in place.
You keep me strong ♡
Tex, I’m sorry that your planned vacation did not meet your expectations. I hope you get another chance for some downtime soon. Keep the Faith.
Lawrence, zombies are so the fashion (: Sorry I couldn’t resist. You always keep things light even when they are heavy…your love does shine thru and I love that about you.
Michele, you must be back home now. I trust it was a good visit.
Blessings again to All: (will repeat Katrina’s last line from todays lesson, as that is what stood out for me too)
Father, Your Word is mine. And it is this that I would speak to all my brothers, who are given me to cherish as my own, as I am loved and blessed and saved by You.
Lesson 277
Let me not bind Your Son with laws I made.
“I secure my body’s safety by attacking you-the ego’s fundamental law.
Indeed, it underlies all bodily laws-one or the other.”
this passage came to mind:
Matthew 26:52
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him,
“for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”
My attack thoughts are mini daggers…
they fly out in all directions before my feet hit the floor.
It’s so disheartening, this morning I noticed that I have been clearing out my mental land mines while simultaneously burying them right behind me.
I haven’t made much progress…except to see that I haven’t made much progress.
A call for gentleness.
Lesson 278
If I am bound, my Father is not free.
Remember, being bound has nothing to do with the physical. but only with the mind’s decision for the ego.
Some of Ken W’s thoughts from L.278 that elucidates what to do with these ‘body’ laws, i think.
“As long as I identify with my body, I am bound by its laws. Yet Jesus teaches that my experience deceives, for the body is not my reality. The curriculum of his course starts me out from where I believe I am – the body – and takes me to where I truly am in the dream – the mind. I am not asked to deny the body’s laws, but only to interpret them through the laws of forgiveness.”
” ‘I am under no laws but God’s.” The only law you truly want to obey is forgiveness, which allows you to choose to be happy – at peace instead of in conflict.”
“Forgiveness simply asks us to place them in their proper perspective: the ego’s laws are true within the dream, but exist for us now only that we may learn our reality is outside them.”
Hi everyone.
Michele, I hope the trip to the East went well. As Annie said, your daughter is in a good space with you as her mom. You’ve had a lot of practice lately with looking at the end of the physical body from a different perspective. We have your lovely card with your loving message in our kitche – I’m looking at it now!
Lawrence, so good to see your spirits are still so fresh and joyous, sharing with us all your true inner vitality which shall never leave you, my good man.
Tex, so sorry that vacation didn’t work out. We had a very soggy and cold ‘summer’ vacation camping at the ocean in August. Back from the vacation and we had only one desire, to find a ray of sunshine somewhere, anywhere! It showed us just how much we still want the outside to be the source of our light and warmth. We still find it funny, even humorous, to see how our mood changes just because the weather improves from one day to the next – and after all these years of inner work, too! Sheesh.
Katrina, holding us all true. I don’t underestimate for a minute the deep changes that must be going on in everyone who reads your lessons summaries (from Ken). Annie, that includes you. It’s hard to pinpoint the progress we we make with this path because it is so subtle and, well, just doesn’t look like progress! But it is. Every time we become aware of another self-harmful thought, we have made a lot of progress. It means our defenses have been reduced by just a little bit more, allowing us to see what we blinded ourselves to before. We have to trust that when things look dark, they are actually improving, in the sense that we will eventually allow ourselves to see the light once we have undone our fear and judgment of our dark thoughts. I think we get to the point where we no longer fool ourselves so easily, and the darkness becomes more and more apparent.
The only possible way to get through the darkness to the light just behind is for us to learn that the darkness is not serious or real. THAT’s the really, really difficult step, I find. It’s one thing to become willing to see our judgments and hateful thoughts – that’s already a good start, the undoing of the denial, the blindness, and the projection, saying it’s everyone else that’s the problem. But it’s altogether another thing to turn toward the lightness and freshness of the Love within us that will then brush all those thoughts away with one sweep of the hand, declaring them all as pure silliness. Something in us just won’t let that happen. THAT is our attachment to guilt, hate, and the identity they seem to bestow on us. Who and what are we once we brush all the darkness away as nothing? The darkness is not ‘something’; it is nothing. That is the terribly difficult step to take. I read recently that darkness is not ‘attacked’ when we turn on the light, because darkness has no real substance or reality. The night is not ‘attacked’ by the dawn. Obscurity and confusion are just no longer there.
By the way, that is the third step in Ken’s three steps, and the one that blocks most of us. Because it’s the one where we turn toward Jesus (the Love within our right minds), and say, You are right, I am wrong. That Love is right, which means that my specialness is not only wrong, but totally insignificant. I am my judgments and my hatefulness. While that hatefulness is serious business, I’m serious business. Saying my dark and hateful thoughts are just fluff is equivalent to saying that my entire, singular and independant identity is just fluff. Something in me just doesn’t want to do that.
So then we go back to the steps: Forgiveness “looks” (so we see instead of pretending there’s nothing there, keeping our eye on the ball), “waits” (because we don’t want to try to ‘do’ anything to ‘fix’ the dark thoughts, we just want to sit quietly with them), and “judges not”, which means we turn away from the part of us that judges and return to the quiet (right) part of our minds which are capable of holding our hateful thoughts until we see that there is no consequence to them. Hate is not powerful or capable of doing anything ‘real’. There was never any consequence to the really hateful thought underlying the entire physical universe. There was no real violence, and there still is not. That’s some radical learning.
Much love everyone today.
Lesson 279
Creation’s freedom promises my own.
Our oneness ensures that despite our ego’s best attempts, we cannot but accept God’s gifts-His promise to us is ours to Him. The Father loves His Son, and the Son returns that love, for love can give only to itself.
♡Bernard…always good to feel your presence and support.
Thanks, B. Needed that just now.
Lesson 280
What limits can I lay upon God’s Son?
Who in their right minds could ever choose the “small ideas and little things” of the ego’s idols of limitation and form, when before them Jesus has placed
the peace of God, and power to bring this peace to everyone who wanders in the world uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear (T-31.VIII.7:1)?
Lesson 281
I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts
It is essential, therefore, that we maintain a strict vigilance of our minds so as to catch our temptation to blame someone or something else for what we have chosen to think and feel. (JTTWB)
(1:3-7)Your Thoughts can only bring me happiness. If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little meaningless ideas in place of where Your Thoughts belong, and where they are. I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. The Thoughts I think with You can only bless. The Thoughts I think with You alone are true.
I’m glad that it was useful, Nina. Hope you’re well. Hugs, B.
Lesson 282
I will not be afraid of love today.
If I could realize but this today, salvation would be reached for all the world. This the decision not to be insane, and to accept myself as God Himself, my Father and my Source, created me. This the determination not to be asleep in dreams of death, while truth remains forever living in the joy of love. And this the choice to recognize the Self Whom God created as the Son He loves, and Who remains my one Identity.
Father, Your Name is Love and so is mine. Such is the truth. And can the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? The name of fear is simply a mistake. Let me not be afraid of truth today.
Lesson 283
My true Identity abides in You.
Father, I made an image of myself, and it is this I call the Son of God. Yet is creation as it always was, for Your creation is unchangeable. Let me not worship idols. I am he my Father loves. My holiness remains the light of Heaven and the Love of God. Is not what is beloved of You secure? Is not the light of Heaven infinite? Is not Your Son my true Identity, when You created everything that is?
Now are we One in shared Identity, with God our Father as our only Source, and everything created part of us. And so we offer blessing to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world, which our forgiveness has made one with us.
Still early Pacific time, but preparing the way in the way that Katrina says she likes (: ( but perhaps not quite exactly so (: —
Lesson 284, I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.
This is the truth,……….., to be accepted as partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth.
I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.
Perfect, Anil. This phrase is one I always need to remember because it is the map of progress i try to remember i was given to follow.
This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth.
I get part way through, but often have to go back the the simple repeating many times (meeting me where i am). So when i feel unable to function at one of the higher positions, at least i know i’ve got my fingers clutching the lower wrungs of the RIGHT ladder!
Lesson 285. My holiness shines bright and clear today.
One of these days, when I next meet Annie, I must learn the bold font method from her (while sitting with her with IPad mini in hand – online learning is a drag ! )
Then my lesson postings will be closer in synch to Annie and Katrina. The form of this year we spent together, as it appears on these pages, will be more elegantly matched…
Oh wait, form is nothing, content is the real deal ? (:
(I think I am starting to understand Tex’s postings more and more (:…. And belatedly, am sorry to hear that you holiday was the way it was, Tex. it’s inexplicable how sometimes the “smallest” things can create more despair in us that some of the “biggest” things.
Note to self: Helps me understand more so that there is no order of difficulty in miracles, and that a tiny irritation is a veil over an intense fury. All emotions are the same on the negative side, and only joy is real…
[Just got a call that has set my heart racing in anticipation. She wants to me meet one on one. What will she say ? ): or (:
Duality is the name of the game on this planet. I don’t know if I should be happy that I have the Course or amI cursed to have this way of thinking embedded in me now ? There is no escape unless I go forward……
The end of all dreams is certain, I quell my beating heart….
Lesson 286
The hush of Heaven holds my heart today.
Father, how still today! How quietly do all things fall in place! This is the day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to understand the lesson that there is no need that I do anything. In You is every choice already made. In You has every conflict been resolved. In You is everything I hope to find already given me. Your peace is mine. My heart is quiet, and my mind at rest. Your Love is Heaven, and Your Love is mine.
The stillness of today will give us hope that we have found the way, and travelled far along it to a wholly certain goal. Today we will not doubt the end which God Himself has promised us. We trust in Him, and in our Self, Who still is One with Him.
————————
Anil, penny for your thoughts. Such a beautiful classic lesson.
Today we will not doubt the end which God Himself has promised us.
Lesson 287
You are my goal, my Father. Only You.
Where would I go but Heaven? What could be a substitute for happiness? What gift could I prefer before the peace of God? What treasure would I seek and find and keep that can compare with my Identity? And would I rather live with fear than love?
You are my goal, my Father. What but You could I desire to have? What way but that which leads to You could I desire to walk? And what except the memory of You could signify to me the end of dreams and futile substitutions for the truth? You are my only goal. Your Son would be as You created him. What way but this could I expect to recognize my Self, and be at one with my Identity?
Lesson 288
Let me forget my brother’s past today.
This is the thought that leads the way to You, and brings me to my goal. I cannot come to You without my brother. And to know my Source, I first must recognize what You created one with me. My brother’s is the hand that leads me on the way to You. His sins are in the past along with mine, and I am saved because the past is gone. Let me not cherish it within my heart, or I will lose the way to walk to You. My brother is my savior. Let me not attack the savior You have given me. But let me honor him who bears Your Name, and so remember that It is my own.
Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven me if you behold your brother in the light of holiness. He cannot be less holy than can I, and you can not be holier than he.
Favorite line for Oct. 15…His sins are in the past along with mine, and I am saved because the past is gone.
Lesson 289
The past is over. it can touch me not
Unless the past is over, the real world must escape my sight. For I am looking nowhere, seeing what is not there.
This lesson offers such a clear explanation as to why i am not seeing what is really there! I’m staring right down the line of what doesn’t exist. But, but, it was just here. I was just putting it there, looked back to check it, and it doesn’t exist? Never did? But what about all that effort i thought i did?
I thought i was sleeping, actually. — maybe not. Slightly awake now. I came bleary eyed to ask Jesus to put my head straight with this new morning lesson, and He asked you, Anil, to set it down ahead for me, pillow fluffed, and mind set to consider peace.
Two days in a row, both of which didn’t exist, where i am taught the past happened on thru but now is gone. So, i’ll take this back into my psych and see what dreams change.
There is nothing like screen gloe to make my eyes close.
So comforting to know my brothers and sisters share this so called -new day- with only one wish – to bring to mind the eternal moment of now…where the past can not touch me.
I too appreciate the preparation of the fluffed pillow and the daily lesson set down next to the piece of chocolate (Baci)
Let my heart hold on to the gratitude with which this day has started and move undisturbed.
Ken closes the lesson with the “new” Lord’s Prayer…”Let us not wander into temptation…”
a familiar line, however, its message now is a liberating reminder not a judgement of the past.
For The past is over. It can touch me not.
Lesson 290
My present happiness is all I see
(2) With this resolve I come to You, and ask Your strength to hold me up today, while I but seek to do Your Will. You cannot fail to hear me, Father. What I ask have You already given me. and I am sure that I will see my happiness today.
Lesson 291
Section 8. What is the Real World?
The real world is a symbol, like the rest of what perception offers. Yet it stands for what is opposite to what you made. Your world is seen through eyes of fear, and brings the witnesses of terror to your mind. The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness blesses, so they see a world where terror is impossible, and witnesses to fear can not be found.
The real world holds a counterpart for each unhappy thought reflected in your world; a sure correction for the sights of fear and sounds of battle which your world contains. The real world shows a world seen differently, through quiet eyes and with a mind at peace. Nothing but rest is there. There are no cries of pain and sorrow heard, for nothing there remains outside forgiveness. And the sights are gentle. Only happy sights and sounds can reach the mind that has forgiven itself.
What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack and murder? What can it perceive surrounding it but safety, love and joy? What is there it would choose to be condemned, and what is there that it would judge against? The world it sees arises from a mind at peace within itself. No danger lurks in anything it sees, for it is kind, and only kindness does it look upon.
The real world is the symbol that the dream of sin and guilt is over, and God’s Son no longer sleeps. His waking eyes perceive the sure reflection of his Father’s Love; the certain promise that he is redeemed. The real world signifies the end of time, for its perception makes time purposeless.
The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes, and leaving but the truth to be itself. That instant is our goal, for it contains the memory of God. And as we look upon a world forgiven, it is He Who calls to us and comes to take us home, reminding us of our Identity which our forgiveness has restored to us.
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Awake early as my son goes off to work. Hoping for a few more zzz’s before baby up time. Just need to read a mind correction for my stewing worried head.
Lesson 291
This is a day of stillness and of peace.
Christ’s vision looks through me today. His sight shows me all things forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world. And I accept this vision in its name, both for myself and for the world as well. What loveliness we look upon today! What holiness we see surrounding us! And it is given us to recognize it is a holiness in which we share; it is the Holiness of God Himself.
This day my mind is quiet, to receive the Thoughts You offer me. And I accept what comes from You, instead of from myself. I do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain. Father, guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You return to me.
Lesson 292
A happy outcome to all things is sure
God’s promises make no exceptions. And She guarantees that only joy can be the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us when this is reached; how long we let an alien will appear to be opposing Gods Will.
And while we think this will is real, we will not find the end God has appointed as the outcome of all problems we perceive, all trials we see and every situation we meet. Yet is the ending certain. For Gods will is done in earth and Heaven.
We will seek and we will find according to Gods Will, which guarantees that our will is done.
We thank you, God, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the end. Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have promised us for every problem that we can perceive; for every trial we think we still must meet.
Lesson 293
All fear is past and only love is here.
All fear is past, because its source is gone, and all its thoughts gone with it. Love remains the only present state, whose Source is here forever and forever. Can the world seem bright and clear and safe and welcoming, with all my past mistakes oppressing it, and showing me distorted forms of fear? Yet in the present love is obvious, and its effects apparent. All the world shines in reflection of its holy light, and I perceive a world forgiven at last.
Father, let not Your holy world escape my sight today. Nor let my ears be deaf to all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing underneath the sounds of fear. There is a real world which the present holds safe from all past mistakes. And I would see only this world before my eyes today.
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It is hard to leave yesterday’s lesson behind. Maybe next year while I go thru the Teacher’s Manual Journey, I’ll just keep that one same lesson all year. But then there are others – well, so many that I love. This one is good, but I still hear lurking fears, or at least think I do.
My body is a wholly neutral thing.
(1:10) Let me not see it more than this today; of service for a while and fit to serve, to keep its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced for greater good.
The body was not made by love. Yet love does not condemn it and can use it lovingly, respecting what the Son of God has made and using it to save him from illusions(T-18.VI.4:7-8).
Lesson 295
The Holy Spirit looks through me today.
The miracle reflects the Love of God, healing all problems as one for there is but one problem.