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A COURSE IN MIRACLES CH 10 "GOD AND THE EGO" VII. EXPERIENCE AND PERCEPTION
62 I am
your resurrection and
your life. You live in me because you live in God. And everyone lives in
you, as
you live in everyone. Can you, then, perceive unworthiness in a brother and
not perceive it in yourself? And can you perceive it in yourself and
not perceive it in God?
ACIM.OE.TX.CH 10.VII.62
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I ~ REVIEW III
INTRODUCTION
<AUDIO> Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
Our third review begins today. We will
review two of the last twenty ideas
each day, until we have reviewed them all.
We will observe a special format for
these practice periods, which you are urged
to follow just as closely as you can.
We understand, of course, that it may be
impossible for you to undertake
what is suggested here as optimal
each day and every hour of the day.
Learning will not be hampered when you miss a practice period because it is impossible at the appointed time. Nor is it necessary that you make excessive efforts to be sure that you catch up in terms of numbers. Rituals are not our aim, and would defeat our goal.
But learning will be hampered when you skip
a practice period because you are unwilling to devote the time to it which you are asked to give. Do not deceive yourself in this. Unwillingness can be most carefully concealed behind a cloak of situations you cannot control. Learn to distinguish situations which are poorly suited to your practicing from those which you establish to uphold the camouflage for your unwillingness.
Those practice periods which you have lost because you did not want to do them for whatever reason should be done as soon as you have changed your mind about your goal. You are unwilling to cooperate in practicing salvation only if it interferes with goals you hold more dear. When you withdraw the value given them, allow your practice periods to be replacements for your litanies to them. They gave you nothing. But your practicing can offer everything to you. And so accept their offering, and be at peace.
The format you should use for these reviews is this: Devote five minutes twice a day, or longer if you would prefer, to considering the thoughts that are assigned. Read over the ideas and comments which are written first in each day's exercise. And then begin to think about them while letting your mind relate them to your needs, your seeming problems and all your concerns.
Place the ideas within your mind, and let it use them as it chooses. Give it faith that it will use them wisely, being helped in its decisions by the One Who gave the thoughts to you. What can you trust but what is in your mind? Have faith, in these reviews, the means the Holy Spirit uses will not fail. The wisdom of your mind will come to your assistance. Give direction at the start, and then lean back in quiet faith, and let the mind employ the thoughts you gave as they were given you for it to use.
You have been given them in perfect trust; in perfect confidence that you would use them well; in perfect faith that you would see their messages, and use them for yourself. Offer them to your mind in that same trust and confidence and faith. It will not fail. It is the Holy Spirit's chosen means for your salvation. Since it has His trust, His means must surely merit yours as well.
We emphasize the benefits to you if you devote the first five minutes of the day to your review and also give the last five minutes of your waking day to it. If this cannot be done, at least try to divide them so you undertake one in the morning, and the other in the hour just before you go to sleep.
The exercises to be done throughout the day are equally important, and perhaps of even greater value. You have been inclined to practice only at appointed times and then go on your way to other things, without applying what you learned to them. As a result, you have gained little reinforcement, and have not given it the opportunity to prove how great are its potential gifts to you.
Here is another chance to use it well. In these reviews we stress the need to let your learning not lie idly by between your longer practice periods. Attempt to give your daily two ideas a brief but serious review each hour. Use one on the hour, and the other one a half an hour later. You need not give more than just a moment to each one.
Repeat it, then allow your mind to rest a little time in silence and in peace. Then turn to other things, but try to keep the thought with you, and let it serve to help you keep your peace throughout the day as well. If you are shaken, think of it again. These practice periods are planned to help you form the habit of applying what you learn each day to everything you do.
Do not repeat it and then lay it down. Its usefulness is limitless to you. And it is meant to serve you in all ways, all times and places, and whenever you need help of any kind. Try, then, to take it with you in the business of the day, and make it holy, worthy of God's Son, acceptable to God and to your Self.
Each day's review assignment will conclude with a restatement of the thought to use each hour, and the one to be applied on each half hour as well. Forget them not. This second chance with each of these ideas will bring such large advances that we come from these reviews with learning gains so great that we begin again on solid ground with firmer footsteps and with stronger faith.
Do not forget how little you have learned. Do not forget how much you can learn now. Do not forget your Father's need of you, as you review these thoughts He gave to you.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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DAILY LESSON
L e s s o n 120 ~ REVIEW III
[Review Lesson 109 and Lesson 110]
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
*IAMBIC PENTAMETER*
1 For morning and evening review:
[109] I rest in God.
2
I rest in God today and let Him work
In me and through me, while I rest in Him In quiet and in perfect certainty.
[110] I am as God created me.
3
I am God's Son. Today I lay aside
All sick illusions of myself and let My Father tell me Who I really am.
4
On the hour:
6
On the half hour:
7
I am as God created me
.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 120
Review III ~ Lesson 109 and Lesson 110
Sarah's Commentary:
This is the last day of the review and what a sweet Lesson to end our review period. "I rest in God" (W.109) and "I am as God created me." (W.110) It has been an overwhelmingly busy week for us here and resting in God today in our minds, despite the external whir, is an inviting thought. The ego mind has no rest. All of our stress, anxiety, despair, and frustration come from thoughts that keep us from knowing who we are as God created us. Can we just relax today and take some respite out of all of this activity and go beyond all of our raucous thoughts, go beyond the activities that keep us from the Self we are and be reminded of our true reality? Yes, even in our busy doings we can rest in God. "This quiet center, in which you do nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every busy doing on which you are sent." (T.18.VII.8.3)(ACIM OE T.18.VIII.70) In other words, we bring the peace we are to every situation.
To rest in God is to be in His flow and allow Him to lead the way. To rest in God is to find our center of peace, if only for a moment, where we release the external world. To rest in God is to know the constancy of the Self we are and know the changing, seeking, striving self is an illusion. To rest in God is to know we are eternally safe in His loving arms. Today, let us find this place of respite within and know that in spite of our experience of stress and turmoil, the truth is we are at home, we are safe and we are whole. When we don't experience this, we are actually listening to the ego. Peace is constant within us all the time, awaiting our acceptance of it. When we bring the false to the truth, we experience a deep feeling of release. We remember our true reality as God created us, never changing, all loving, always and still at peace, whole, safe and at home. To rest in God is to give ourselves over to Him and let Him work through us, using our bodies as an instrument of His peace and love in the world. Our own actions become entirely involuntary and our thoughts become His. It is, indeed, to live in ease and to live in the flow.
This experience comes to the quiet mind. It is a deep place of silence and safety in the mind we come to in our meditation and contemplation as we start and end our day. On every hour, we take respite in the quiet center of our minds where there is perfect certainty, while reminding ourselves on the half hour of our true reality as God's Son. Sure, we will pick up the struggle again because we still want to be on this worldly stage, special and unique, but as we connect more and more with the truth, our desire for this experience increases. To rest in God is to know that when we seem to be in the struggle it is not who we really are. Behind the struggle is the peace of God. "Salvation lies in the simple fact that illusions are not fearful because they are not true." (T.16.V.14.1)(ACIM OE T.16.VI.56)
To rest in God is to see our problems from above the battleground, from outside this dream. From this place, we accept all there is without judgment, and do not fight against it. When we fight against what is, we suffer. "All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognize yourself, your brother or God." (T.3.III.2.1)(ACIM OE T.3.V.31) We are never upset with a fact. What upsets us is our interpretations. "It is always an interpretation that gives rise to negative emotions, regardless of their seeming justification by what appears as facts." (M.17.4.2) When our minds are at peace, we know everything is fine, regardless of appearances. Jesus gave us this message when he affirmed he knows everything we have done and loves us always. "He cannot be unjust to anyone or anything, because He knows that everything is belongs to Him, and will forever be as He created it." (T.26.II.8.2)(ACIM OE T.26.III.17)
Who you think you are and what you think you have made of yourself is all delusional. It is just a mistaken identity you have come to believe is yourself. You are God's Son and you share His attributes. As God's Son, you are the same as Jesus---One with all creation. These are not just pretty words. They are the truth of our being. Can we take this much love in today? To do so requires we look at our false thoughts and beliefs without judgment. When we look at the ego with Jesus, from outside of the dream, we can smile at it and see it as the delusion it is. Rest in God. Take His Word for who you really are today and everyday.
The practice continues as before, with time spent each morning and each evening with the Lesson and letting related thoughts come to mind. These are already in the mind. We can allow them to come forward without effort. They are a form of self-talk that is helpful in dismissing the chatter of the ego. They are the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in our right mind where the truth resides.
We apply the Lesson to every concern, problem, situation, and relationship that comes up during the day and try to remember the Lesson on the hour with "I rest in God." (W.109) On the half hour: "I am as God created me." (W.110)
Love and blessings, Sarah
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PAUSED FOR WEEKEND
VII. Experience and Perception
59 It is impossible not to believe what you see, but it is equally impossible to see what you do
not believe. Perceptions are built up on the basis of experience, and experience leads to beliefs. It is not until beliefs are fixed that perceptions stabilize. In effect, then, what you believe, you
do see. That is what I meant when I said, "Blessed are ye who have not seen and still believe," for those who believe in the resurrection
will see it. The resurrection is the complete triumph of Christ over the ego, not by attack but by transcendence. For Christ
does rise above the ego and all its works and ascends to the Father and
His Kingdom.
60 Would you join in the resurrection or the crucifixion? Would you condemn your brothers or free them? Would you transcend
your prison and ascend to the Father? For these questions are all the same and are answered together. There has been much confusion about what perception means because the same word is used both for awareness and for the
interpretation of awareness. Yet you cannot
be aware without interpretation, and what you perceive
is your interpretation. This course is perfectly clear. You do not see it clearly because you are interpreting
against it and therefore do not
believe it. And if belief determines perception, you do
not perceive what it means and therefore do not
accept it.
61 Yet different experiences lead to different beliefs, [and with them, different perceptions. For perceptions are learned with beliefs,] and experience teaches. I am leading you to a new kind of experience, which you will become less and less willing to deny. Learning of Christ is easy, for to perceive with Him involves no strain at all.
His perceptions are your
natural awareness, and it is only distortions which
you introduce that tire you. Let the Christ in you interpret
for you, and do not try to limit what you see by narrow little beliefs which are unworthy of God's Son. For until Christ comes into His own, the Son of God
will see himself as fatherless.
62 I am
your resurrection and
your life. You live in me because you live in God. And everyone lives in
you, as
you live in everyone. Can you, then, perceive unworthiness in a brother and
not perceive it in yourself? And can you perceive it in yourself and
not perceive it in God? Believe in the resurrection because it has
been accomplished, and it has been accomplished
in you. This is as true now as it will ever be, for the resurrection is the Will of God, which knows no time and no exceptions. But make no exceptions yourself, or you will not perceive what has been accomplished
for you. For we ascend unto the Father together, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, for such is the nature of God's Son as His Father created him.
63 Do not underestimate the power of the devotion of God's Son nor the power of the god he worships over him. For he places
himself at the altar of his god, whether it be the god he made or the God who created him. That is why his slavery is as complete as his freedom, for he will obey
only the god he accepts. The god of the crucifixion demands that he crucify and his worshipers obey. In his name they crucify
themselves, believing that the power of the Son of God is born of sacrifice and pain. The God of the resurrection demands
nothing, for He does not will to take away. He does not require obedience, for obedience implies submission. He would only have you learn your
own will and follow it, not in the spirit of sacrifice and submission, but in the gladness of freedom.
64 Resurrection must compel your allegiance gladly because it is the symbol of joy. Its whole compelling power lies in the fact that it represents what
you want to be. The freedom to leave behind everything that hurts you and humbles you and frightens you cannot be thrust upon you, but it
can be offered you through the grace of God. And you can
accept it by His grace, for God
is gracious to His Son, accepting him without question as His own. Who, then, is
your own? The Father has given you all that is His, and He Himself is yours
with them. Guard them in their resurrection, for otherwise you will not awake in God safely surrounded by what is yours forever.
65 You will not find peace until you have removed the nails from the hands of God's Son and taken the last thorn from his forehead. The love of God surrounds His Son, whom the god of the crucifixion condemns. Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did
not die by demonstrating that I live
in you. For the
undoing of the crucifixion of God's Son is the work of the redemption, in which everyone has a part of equal value. God does not judge His blameless Son. Having given
Himself to him, how could it be otherwise?
66 You have nailed
yourself to a cross and placed a crown of thorns upon your
own head. Yet you
cannot crucify God's Son, for the Will of God cannot die. His Son
has been redeemed from his own crucifixion, and you cannot assign to death whom God has given eternal life. The dream of crucifixion still lies heavy on your eyes, but what you see in dreams is not reality. While you perceive the Son of God as crucified, you are asleep. And as long as you believe that
you can crucify him, you are only having nightmares. You who are beginning to wake are still aware of dreams and have not yet forgotten them. The forgetting of dreams and the awareness of Christ comes with the awakening of others to
share your redemption.
67 You will awaken to your
own call, for the Call to awake is
within you. If I live in you, you
are awake. Yet you must see the works I do through you, or you will not perceive that I have done them
unto you. Do not set limits on what you believe I can do through you, or you will not accept what I can do
for you. For it is done
already, and unless you give all that you have received, you will not know that your Redeemer liveth and that
you have awakened
with Him. Redemption is recognized
only by sharing it.
68 God's Son
is saved. Bring only
this awareness to the Sonship, and you will have a part in the redemption as valuable as mine. For your part must be
like mine if you learn it of me. If you believe that
yours is limited,
you are limiting
mine. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because all of God's Sons are of equal value, and their equality is their oneness. The whole power of God is in every part of Him, and nothing contradictory to His Will is either great or small. What does not exist has
no size and
no measure. To God
all things are possible. And to Christ it is given to be
like the Father.
ON LINE SEARCHABLE Original Edition
PDF 2016 Schedule of Lessons & Text Readings
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