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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 21 THE INNER PICTURE
IX. THE INNER SHIFT
90 What is the holy instant but God's appeal to you to recognize what He has given you? Here is the great appeal to reason; the awareness of what is always there to see, the happiness that could be always yours. Here is the constant peace you could experience forever. Here is what denial has denied
revealed to you. For here the final question is
already answered and what you ask for given. Here is the future
now, for time is powerless because of your desire for what will never change. For you have asked that nothing stand between the holiness of your relationship and your
awareness of its holiness.
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK for STUDENTS
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
The world is false perception. It is born
of error, and it has not left its source.
It will remain no longer than the thought
that gave it birth is cherished. When the thought
of separation has been changed to one
of true forgiveness, will the world be seen
in quite another light; and one that leads
to truth, where all the world must disappear,
and all its errors vanish. Now its source
has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
The world was made as an attack on God.
It symbolizes fear. And what is fear
except love's absence? Thus the world was meant
to be a place where God could enter not,
and where His Son could be apart from Him.
Here was perception born, for knowledge could
not cause such insane thoughts. But eyes deceive,
and ears hear falsely. Now mistakes become
quite possible, for certainty has gone.
The mechanisms of illusion have
been born instead. And now they go to find
what has been given them to seek. Their aim
is to fulfill the purpose which the world
was made to witness and make real. They see
in its illusions but a solid base
where truth exists, upheld apart from lies.
Yet everything which they report is but
illusion which is kept apart from truth.
As sight was made to lead away from truth,
it can be redirected. Sounds become
the call of God. And all perception can
be given a new purpose, by the One
Whom God appointed Saviour to the world.
Follow His light, and see the world as He
beholds it. Hear His Voice alone in all
that speaks to you. And let Him give you peace
and certainty, which you have thrown away,
but Heaven has preserved for you in Him.
Let us not rest content until the world
has joined our changed perception. Let us not
be satisfied until forgiveness has
been made complete. And let us not attempt
to change our function. We must save the world.
For we who made it must behold it through
the eyes of Christ, that what was made to die
can be restored to everlasting life.
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L e s s o n 243
Today I will judge nothing that occurs.
<AUDIO><VIDEO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
I will be honest with myself today.
I will not think that I already know
what must remain beyond my present grasp.
I will not think I understand the whole
from bits of my perception, which are all
that I can see. Today I recognize
that this is so. And so I am relieved
of judgments which I cannot make. Thus do
I free myself and what I look upon
to be in peace as God created us.
Father, today I leave creation free
to be itself. I honor all its parts,
in which I am included. We are one
because each part contains Your memory,
and truth must shine in all of us as one.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 243
Today I will judge nothing that occurs.
Sarah's Commentary:
This Lesson follows on what was said yesterday, which is a reminder that we do not understand anything. We do not know, and thus we must come to Someone Who does know, which requires humility on our part. How do we know when we are wrong about what we think we know? We know we are wrong because we feel anxious, depressed, upset, uncertain, frustrated, angry, worried, impatient, agitated, or any other state not peaceful. These are signals to us that we are relying on the wrong teacher, the one we believe has the answers for us. It is our own inner voice, and it reflects the thought system of separation and individuality. It is based on the belief that we are on our own and have to rely on ourselves alone. In this belief, we try to figure out the answers, and thus our minds are closed to guidance of the Holy Spirit.
When I read, "Today I will judge nothing that occurs, " (W.243) I am reminded of Section 10 of the Manual for Teachers, "How is judgment relinquished?" (M.10) We are told that in the world, we seem to be capable of "good" and "bad" judgment, which we arrive at through our education and experience. We rely on it to help us make more good judgments than bad judgments. Yet we learn in this section, ". . . not that he should not judge, but that he cannot." (M.10.2.1) "As the world uses the term, an individual is capable of 'good' and 'bad' judgment, and his education aims at strengthening the former and minimizing the latter. There is, however, considerable confusion about what these categories mean. What is 'good' judgment to one is 'bad' judgment to another. Further, even the same person classifies the same action as showing 'good' judgment at one time and 'bad' judgment at another time." (M.10.1.3-4)
When we recognize we simply cannot judge, we have become more honest with ourselves. Until we do, we are just fooling ourselves, believing we can know anything at all. Jesus reminds us that the most we have on which to judge anything is ". . . bits of my perception, which are all that I can see." (W.243.1.3) From these bits of perception, we come to a conclusion, but it will always be wrong. Why do we continue to rely on ourselves? Why not just give it up? It isn't that we should not judge or it is wrong to judge, only that we cannot judge any situation adequately, and yet we do because we think we know. This is the arrogance of the ego mind when we think we understand anything.
The gateway to our freedom is to surrender the "I know" mind. "Thus do I free myself and what I look upon, to be in peace as God created us." (W.243.1.6) What this says to me is, by my constant judgments, I am actually keeping myself out of peace and tiring myself. If I do not give an event my interpretation of what it means, it is just a neutral event, and it will not give rise to any emotional experience. In other words, it is just being observed with no judgment.
Without judgment, I do not know who you are, and I do not know who I am. While that can bring up some fear, it is also a freeing thought. In each of us is the whole, the Oneness of Heaven. When I honor the whole, I am leaving it free to be Itself. On the other hand, judgments separate everything into good and bad parts. It is what the ego does. It wants to keep us separate from the whole, and thus it judges everything as separate from everything else. This keeps the ego going.
Because we cannot know the whole of everything, judgment ". . . must remain beyond my present grasp." (W.243.1.2) Our judgments are simply a shot in the dark and always wrong, but more than that, they keep reinforcing our limited perceptions. We can spend a lifetime hating someone only to find we really did not understand. We not only did not have all the information, we made up our own story based on our projections that came from our own guilt and self-attack. It is not helpful to now judge ourselves for having been wrong. Whether it is ourselves we judge as guilty, or anyone else, we are still caught in the same trap of the ego.
We can start by watching our thoughts and recognizing the judgments as they come up and being willing to release them. If the willingness is not there, we can ask for help to strengthen our motivation to forgive. When we are willing to take responsibility for our judgments, we give them over to the Holy Spirit. We recognize that we have been mistaken in categorizing anything or anyone as either good or bad. We can give up our evaluations of what others look like, say, or do, and we can watch our judgments as we make them, seeing them as the projections of our own unhealed thoughts. To bring awareness to our thoughts is all that is asked of us. The Holy Spirit does the rest. We cannot fix ourselves. We cannot make ourselves spiritual. All we can do is observe our judgmental thoughts and put them on the inner altar.
We love to compare, categorize, and condemn because we love our own specialness. Until the ego is overcome, we will continue to make judgments. Yet with awareness, we can bring attention to them and release them as they come up. Just being aware of how much we judge others and ourselves is helpful because then we can make a choice. We can turn our judgments over to the Holy Spirit and ask for His help by asking Him to look on the situation, event, or person and judge it for us.
As Jesus tells us, we need to give up judgment in order to see with vision. "Truth will be restored to you through your desire, as it was lost to you through your desire for something else. Open the holy place that you closed off by valuing the 'something else,' and what was never lost will quietly return. It has been saved for you. Vision would not be necessary had judgment not been made. Desire now its whole undoing, and it is done for you." (T.20.VIII.1.2-6) (ACIM OE T.20.IX.67)
If you want to free yourself from the wearying habit of constant judgment and know the truth of your own Identity, ". . . would you not happily exchange your doubts for certainty?" (T.20.VIII.2.2) (ACIM OE T.20.IX.68) That is what the Holy Spirit can do for us. All we need to do is have the willingness and desire today to watch our judgments as we make them and turn them over to Him. He does the rest.
Love and Blessings, Sarah
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85 Are thoughts then dangerous? To bodies,
yes! The thoughts that seem to kill are those which teach the thinker that he
can be killed. And so he dies
because of what he learned. He goes from life to death, the final proof he valued the inconstant more than constancy. Surely he
thought he wanted happiness. Yet he did not desire it
because it was the truth and therefore
must be constant.
86 The constancy of joy is a condition quite alien to your understanding. Yet if you could even imagine what it must be, you would desire it although you understand it not.
87 The constancy of happiness has no exceptions---no change of any kind. It is unshakable as is the love of God for His creation. Sure in its vision as its Creator is in what He knows, it looks on everything and sees it is the same. It sees not the ephemeral, for it desires that everything be like itself and sees it so. Nothing has power to confound its constancy because its own desire cannot be shaken. It comes as surely unto those who see the final question is necessary to the rest, as peace must come to those who choose to heal and not to judge.
88 Reason will tell you that you
cannot ask for happiness inconstantly. For if what you desire you receive and happiness is constant, then you need ask for it but
once to have it
always. And if you do not have it always, being what it is, you did not ask for it. For no one fails to ask for his desire of something he believes holds out some promise of the power of giving it. He may be wrong in what he asks, where, and of what. Yet he
will ask because desire is a request, an asking for, and made by one whom God Himself will never fail to answer. God has already given him all that he
really wants. Yet what he is uncertain of, God
cannot give. For he does not desire it while he remains uncertain, and God's giving must be incomplete unless it is received.
89 You who complete God's Will and are His happiness, whose will is powerful as His, a power that is not lost in your illusions, think carefully why it should be you have not yet decided how you would answer the final question. Your answer to the others has made it possible to help you be but partially insane. And yet it is the final one that really asks if you are willing to be
wholly sane.
90 What is the holy instant but God's appeal to you to recognize what He has given you? Here is the great appeal to reason; the awareness of what is always there to see, the happiness that could be always yours. Here is the constant peace you could experience forever. Here is what denial has denied
revealed to you. For here the final question is
already answered and what you ask for given. Here is the future
now, for time is powerless because of your desire for what will never change. For you have asked that nothing stand between the holiness of your relationship and your
awareness of its holiness.
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