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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 5 "HEALING AND WHOLENESS"
VI. THERAPY AND TEACHING
Teaching is therapy because it means the
sharing of ideas and the awareness that to share them is to
strengthen them. The union of the Sonship
is its protection. The ego cannot prevail against the Kingdom
because it is united, and the ego fades away and is undone in the presence of the attraction of the parts of the Sonship, which hear the call of the Holy Spirit to be as One.
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I ~ REVIEW I
INTRODUCTION
<AUDIO><VIDEO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
1 Beginning with today, we will have a series of review periods. Each of them will cover five of the ideas already presented, starting with the first and ending with the fiftieth. There will be a few short comments after each of the ideas which you should consider in your review. In the practice periods, the exercises should be done as follows:
2 Begin the day by reading the five ideas, with the comments included. Thereafter, it is not necessary to follow any particular order in considering them, though each one should be practiced at least once. Devote two minutes or more to each practice period, thinking about the idea and the related comments. Do this as often as possible during the day. If any one of the five ideas appeals to you more than the others, concentrate on that one. At the end of the day, however, be sure to review all of them once more.
3 It is not necessary to cover the comments that follow each idea literally or thoroughly in the practice periods. Rather, try merely to emphasize the central point and think about it as part of your review of the idea to which it relates.
4 The review exercises should be done with your eyes closed and when you are alone in a quiet place if possible. This is emphasized particularly for reviews at your stage of learning. It will be necessary, however, that you learn to require no special settings in which to apply what you have learned. You will need it most in situations which appear to be upsetting, rather than in those which already seem to be calm and quiet.
5 The purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with you and to heal distress and turmoil. This is not done by avoiding them and seeking a haven of isolation for yourself. You will yet learn that peace is part of you and requires only that you be there to embrace any situation in which you are. And finally you will learn that there is no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are.
6 You will note that for review purposes the ideas are not always given in quite their original form of statement. Use them as they are given here. It is not necessary to return to the original statements nor to apply the ideas as was suggested then. We are now emphasizing the relationships among the first fifty of the ideas we have covered and the cohesiveness of the thought system to which they are leading you.
~ Original Hand Script of ACIM
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DAILY LESSON
L e s s o n 57 ~ Review I
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
1Today let us review these ideas:
[31] I am not the victim of the world I see.
2 How can I be the victim of a world that can be completely undone if I so choose? My chains are loosened. I can drop them off merely by desiring to do so. The prison door is open. I can leave it simply by walking out. Nothing holds me in this world. Only my wish to stay keeps me a prisoner. I would give up my insane wishes and walk into the sunlight at last.
[32] I have invented the world I see.
3 I made up the prison in which I see myself. All I need do is recognize this, and I am free. I have deluded myself into believing it is possible to imprison the Son of God. I was bitterly mistaken in this belief, which I no longer want. The Son of God must be forever free. He is as God created him, and not what I would make of him. He is where God would have him be, and not where I thought to hold him prisoner.
[33] There is another way of looking at the world.
4 Since the purpose of the world is not the one I ascribed to it, there must be another way of looking at it. I see everything upside down, and my thoughts are the opposite of truth. I see the world as a prison for God's Son. It must be, then, that the world is really a place where he can be set free. I would look upon the world as it is, and see it as a place where the Son of God finds his freedom.
[34] I could see peace instead of this.
5 When I see the world as a place of freedom, I will realize that it reflects the laws of God instead of the rules which I made up for it to obey. I will understand that peace, not war, abides in it. And I will perceive that peace also abides in the hearts of all who share this place with me.
[35] My mind is part of God's. I am very holy.
6 As I share the peace of the world with my brothers, I begin to understand that this peace comes from deep within myself. The world I look upon has taken on the light of my forgiveness and shines forgiveness back at me. In this light, I begin to see what my illusions about myself had kept hidden. I begin to understand the holiness of all living things including myself, and their oneness with me.
~ Original Hand Script of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
Sarah's Commentary:
These review Lessons really help us look at what we experience in our day and which thought system we are choosing---that of the ego or that of the Holy Spirit. Everything we see in the world is coming from our minds. Our experience at this moment tells us who we are listening to, the ego or the Holy Spirit. What are we allowing in? We really need to get that there is nothing outside of our minds. The themes that run through these review Lessons are mostly about the peace that abides deep within us and the freedom we have to leave our self-imposed prison. In the introduction to the reviews, Jesus tells us they are important in helping us to see these Lessons as a unified, cohesive thought system.
We see a lot in this review about the prison we find ourselves in, even though it is of our own imagining. How can anything imprison who we really are as the Son of God? We are only in a prison of our own thoughts. The truth is we are free right now. The door is open and "I can leave simply by walking out." (W.57.1.6) As long as we don't believe that and hold onto our "insane wishes," (W.57.1.9) we will stay in the prison. The prison is one we have made up ourselves, and yet the Lesson reminds us, "Nothing holds me in this world." (W.57.1.7) In spite of this fact, we feel trapped! We have resentment about our perceived incarceration because we see others as responsible for our condition. Jesus says the prison door is open, and we can walk into the sunlight any time we choose.
I notice how much I feel the victim of the demands of my day at times, yet I wonder who but I set it all up? It is an ironic image. "Should I wait in chains which have been severed for release, when God is offering me freedom now?" (W.279.1.5) "Prisoners bound with heavy chains for years, starved and emaciated, weak and exhausted, and with eyes so long cast down in darkness they remember not the light, do not leap up in joy the instant they are made free. It takes a while for them to understand what freedom is. You groped but feebly in the dust and found your brother's hand, uncertain whether to let it go or to take hold on life so long forgotten. Strengthen your hold and raise your eyes unto your strong companion, in whom the meaning of your freedom lies. He seemed to be crucified beside you. And yet his holiness remained untouched and perfect, and with him beside you, you shall this day enter with him to Paradise, and know the peace of God." (T.20.III.9.1-6)(ACIM OE T.20.IV.25) This is what Heaven is. It is union. It is joining with your brother. It is equality. It is recognizing our interests are exactly the same, and when we do, the prison doors are opened. The imprisonment we experience in our aloneness and sense of separateness from each other and from God is seen to be illusory.
When I am experiencing difficulty with someone, I am identifying him/her as the problem and the cause of my lack of peace, but I can choose to change my mind. I can choose to see it is my guilt I am projecting onto my brother. I can choose to see his innocence. I can offer my brother peace and forgiveness instead of judgment, if I am willing to take responsibility for my own thoughts as the cause of everything I see. That is the only way I will know my own innocence. As I release you to the Holy Spirit in peace, I release myself as well. The question we need to ask ourselves is do we really want to? The ego screams, "No." "He must pay." "My anger is justified." "Look at what he has done." But what happens when we hold these perspectives and listen to the voice of the ego is we only put ourselves in the prison with him. It may not feel like an easy choice to take his hand instead of crucifying him when our anger seems so justified, but it is the only choice we must make if we want our own freedom and peace. It is the decision of which teacher to follow, the ego or the Holy Spirit. The only freedom we have in the world is the power of decision in our own minds.
The world only has one purpose. It is indeed "really a place where he [we] can be set free." (W.57.3.5) As Eckhart Tolle asks in his book, A New Earth, "Can they defy the gravitational pull of materialism and materiality and rise above identification with form that keeps the ego in place and condemns them to imprisonment within their own personality?" This is the transformation that takes us out of our prison of a world of form and takes us into the sunlight where everything shines with God's meaning. "My mind is part of God's. I am very holy." (W.57.5.1-2) Yes, we can procrastinate, and we do resist, but the way out will eventually be chosen by us all. That is why we came. We came to experience separation, but now we can find our liberation. That is what the new earth is all about.
We have invented the world we see as a result of what is in our minds. If we are not happy and not at peace, we are the only ones can change it. If I want to know my own holiness, I have to see it in you. The ego says, "Look at yourself. You are a victim! You have been hurt! Look what this person has done to you!!" We can choose not to listen. We can choose to see an opportunity for healing in anything that shows up. Otherwise we get into a cycle of attack and retaliation, and instead of releasing our hidden guilt we enhance it and stay in the prison. We chain ourselves to those we hate. Are you at peace today? If not, you are listening to the ego as your guide, and this is truly a moment by moment decision as to whether you choose the prison or your release. Whenever you are not at peace today, look at your thoughts and admit you are choosing to hold grievances and attack thoughts. Remember you do have a choice and can let them go. Is it easy to do? Not necessarily. The ego is tenacious, but we have a bigger power than the ego. The ego is nothing when we withdraw our belief from it. And when we do, we see the laws of God, instead of our own rules we made up for how the world is supposed to treat us. We can then withdraw the demands we make of everyone.
Despite appearances of war and conflict, peace always shines behind every attack. It abides in all hearts. Help me to see this peace behind every attack. Help me to focus not on what my eyes see, but to look beyond the form to the truth that shines in everyone. Yes, the forms will still be clashing. There will still be war. There is still conflict in the world. Yet with forgiveness, we see witnesses to the light that is unexpressed behind the clashing forms, and that will affirm for us that with vision we can see the holiness and innocence that is not seen with the body's eyes.
It is only through forgiveness that holiness is revealed. When the blocks are gone and peace, forgiveness and love shine through us, we see a world of peace, forgiveness and love shining back at us. Why would we not want that? What do grievances offer that we would want more than that? Until we choose the means to a different world, the real world, we won't be aware of this light in us. It is in allowing the light in me to shine that I begin to understand it is coming from deep within me and reflected back to me in gratitude. Many illusions I hold in the form of my self-concepts, beliefs, rules, expectations, anger, depression, worries and concerns, which I have kept hidden from my awareness, I can see clearly when I bring willingness, honesty and courage to bear. I can look at my ego thoughts without fear or recrimination in the understanding that this is not me. I truly am holy, divine, pure and innocent. That is the only truth.
Today, I ask myself, "How can I be the victim of a world that can be completely undone, if it is something I can choose to do?" If it truly is a world I made, the world is not the problem, only the fact that I am not willing to consider I made it is the problem. Am I willing to admit I have been wrong about everything, thinking I am a victim of everything and everyone including of my own body? We made up everything we think impinges on us. Now we need to have the humility to say we have been wrong. Our stubborn insistence that we are right is the problem. The way out is to admit we are wrong and to release our grievances by joining with Jesus in letting him shine away the darkness we are holding in our minds. Unloving thoughts remain only by our decision not to look at them, in which case they are projected out.
Love and blessings, Sarah
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VI. Therapy and Teaching
continued
51 You have become willing to receive my messages as I give them without interference by the ego, so we can clarify an earlier point. We said that you will one day teach as much as you learn and that will keep you in balance. The time is now because you have
let it be now. You cannot learn
except by teaching.
52 I heard one voice because I had learned that learning is attained
by teaching. I understood that
I could not atone for myself alone. Listening to one voice means the will to
share the voice in order to hear it yourself. The mind that was in me is still irresistibly drawn to every mind created by God because God's Wholeness
is the wholeness of His Son.
53 Turning the other cheek does
not mean that you should submit to violence without protest. It means that you cannot
be hurt and do not want to show your brother anything
except your wholeness. Show him that he
cannot hurt you and hold nothing against him, or you hold it against yourself. Teaching is done in many ways: by formal means, by guidance, and above all
by example. Teaching is therapy because it means the
sharing of ideas and the awareness that to share them is to
strengthen them. The union of the Sonship
is its protection. The ego cannot prevail against the Kingdom
because it is united, and the ego fades away and is undone in the presence of the attraction of the parts of the Sonship, which hear the call of the Holy Spirit to be as One.
54 I cannot forget my need to teach what I have learned, which arose in me
because I learned it. I call upon you to teach what you have learned because by so doing
you can depend on it. Make it dependable in my name because my name is the Name of God's Son. What I learned I give you freely, and the mind which was in me rejoices as
you choose to hear it. The Holy Spirit atones in all of us by
undoing and thus lifts the burden you have placed in your mind. By following Him, He leads you back to God where you belong, and how can you find this way except by taking your brother with you?
55 My part in the Atonement is not complete until
you join it and give it away. As you teach, so shall you learn. I will never leave you or forsake you because to forsake you would be to forsake myself and God who created me. You will forsake yourselves and God if you forsake
any of your brothers. You are more than your brother's keeper. In fact, you do not
want to keep him. You must learn to see him as he is and
know that he belongs to God as you do. How could you treat your brother better than by rendering unto God the things which are God's?
56 Ideas do not
leave the mind which thought them to have a separate being, nor do separate thoughts conflict with one another in space because they do not occupy space at all. However, human ideas
can conflict in content because they occur at different levels and include opposite thoughts at the
same level.
It is impossible to share opposing thoughts. The Holy Spirit does not
let you forsake your brothers. Therefore, you can really share
only the parts of your thoughts which are of Him and which He also keeps for
you. And of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. All the rest remains with you until He has reinterpreted them in the light of the Kingdom, making them, too, worthy of being shared. When they have been sufficiently purified, He lets you give them away. The will to share them
is their purification.
57 The Atonement gives you the power of a healed mind, but the power to create is of God. Therefore, those who have been forgiven must devote themselves first to healing because having
received the idea of healing, they must
give it to
hold it. The full power of creation cannot be expressed as long as
any of God's ideas withhold it from the Kingdom. The joint will of
all the Sonship is the only creator that can create like the Father because only the complete can think completely, and the thinking of God lacks nothing. Everything you think that is not through the Holy Spirit
is lacking.
58 How can you who are so holy suffer? All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left except a blessing. You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself. You go
with my blessing and
for my blessing. Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it and the hands are strong to give it. We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. His quiet Children are His blessed Sons. The Thoughts of God are with you.
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