Lesson 224
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The World is One to the Innocent
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 20 THE PROMISE OF THE RESURRECTION
IV. SIN AS AN ADJUSTMENT   
    
21 Who in a holy relationship can long remain unholy? The world the holy see is one with them, just as the world the ego looks upon is like itself. The world the holy see is beautiful because they see their innocence in it. They did not tell it what it was; they did not make adjustments to fit their orders. They gently questioned it and whispered, "What are you?" And He Who watches over all perception answered. Take not the judgment of the world as answer to the question, "What am I?"

ACIM OE CH 20.IV.21        
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK for STUDENTS
What is Forgiveness
WHAT IS FORGIVENESS? 

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*IAMBIC PENTAMETER*
 
   Forgiveness recognizes what you thought
   your brother did to you has not occurred.
   It does not pardon sins, and make them real.
   It sees there was no sin. And in this view
   are all your sins forgiven. What is sin
   except a false idea of God's Son?
   Forgiveness merely sees its falsity,
   and therefore lets it go. What then is free
   to take its place is now the Will of God.
 
   An unforgiving thought is one which makes
   a judgment that it will not raise to doubt,
   although it is untrue. The mind is closed,
   and will not be released. The thought protects
   projection, tightening its chains, so that
   distortions are more veiled and more obscure;
   less easily accessible to doubt,
   and further kept from reason. What can come
   between a fixed projection and the aim
   that it has chosen as its needed goal?
 
   An unforgiving thought does many things.
   In frantic action it pursues its goal,
   twisting and overturning what it sees
   as interfering with its chosen path.
   Distortion is its purpose, and the means
   by which it would accomplish it as well.
   It sets about its furious attempts
   to smash reality without concern
   for anything that would appear to pose
   a contradiction to its point of view.
 
   Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still
   and quietly does nothing. It offends
   no aspect of reality, nor seeks
   to twist it to appearance that it likes.
   It merely looks and waits and judges not.
   He who would not forgive must judge, for he
   must justify his failure to forgive.
   But he who would forgive himself must learn
   to welcome truth exactly as it is.
 
   Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show
   you what to do through Him Who is your Guide,
   your Saviour and Defender, strong in hope
   and certain of your ultimate success.
   He has forgiven you already, for
   such is His function, given Him by God.
   Now must you share His function, and forgive
   whom He has saved, whose sinlessness He sees,
   and whom He honors as the Son of God. "
 
  ~ Original Hand Script September 21, 1970

  
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DAILY LESSON
SonShip Workbook
L e s s o n 224
God is my Father
and He loves His Son.

  
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio

 
   My true identity is so secure,
   so lofty, sinless, glorious and great,
   wholly beneficent and free from guilt,
   that Heaven looks to It to give it light.
   It lights the world as well. It is the gift
   my Father gave me, and the gift as well
   I give the world. There is no gift but This
   that can be either given or received.
   This is reality, and only This.
   This is illusion's end. It is the Truth.
 
    My Name, oh Father, still is known to You.
    I have forgotten it, and do not know
    where I am going, who I am, or what
    it is I do. Remind me, Father, now,
    for I am weary of the world I see.
    Reveal what You would have me see instead.
 
 ~ Original Handscript of ACIM September 24,1970
  
          
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 
ACIM Edmonton, CA
LESSON 224

God is my Father, and He loves His Son.

Sarah's Commentary:   

These Lessons are now about quiet expectancy for the experience of entering into His presence. He has made an ancient promise to us and He intends to keep it. It is our decision whether we choose to have this experience. We will go as quickly as our fear will allow. God will not override our will.
 
We have developed an identity of who we think we are. This identity includes our bodies, the many traits and attributes we have, the beliefs and opinions we hold, and the self-concepts we think define us---all of them untrue. All of this is held in the mind, but it can all be shifted when we accept the miracle. The miracle comes through forgiveness and reflects a change in perception from a wrong-minded perspective to a reflection of God's Love in the right mind. Our true Identity is so lofty it is beyond anything we can even imagine, but we can have an experience which reflects Heaven here. In His quiet presence, we leave behind the concepts we hold of ourselves. We experience His Love, His gratitude, beneficence and beauty, innocence, and a deep sense of rest. Words cannot express the feelings of release from the grips of the ego. It is about letting go of the image we cling to and defend. With the image come judgments, comparisons, and differences, all contributing to our deep fatigue.
 
"The choice to judge rather than to know is the cause of the loss of peace." (T.3.VI.2.1)(ACIM OE T.3.VIII.61) " When you feel tired, it is because you have judged yourself as capable of being tired. When you laugh at someone, it is because you have judged him as unworthy. When you laugh at yourself you must laugh at others, if only because you cannot tolerate the idea of being more unworthy than they are. All this makes you feel tired because it is essentially disheartening. You are not really capable of being tired, but you are very capable of wearying yourself. The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable. It is curious that an ability so debilitating would be so deeply cherished. Yet if you wish to be the author of reality, you will insist on holding on to judgment. You will also regard judgment with fear, believing that it will someday be used against you. This belief can exist only to the extent that you believe in the efficacy of judgment as a weapon of defense for your own authority. " (T.3.VI.5.1-10) (ACIM OE T.3.VIII.65)
 
The place where I think I am is not my home. My true home, my dwelling place, is with God. It is my reality. It is where I belong. No substitutes can satisfy the Son of God. All substitutes turn to ash. They only feel good for the moment. They are temporary pleasures that cannot serve the Son of God. When we choose to release them, without feeling sacrifice, we commit fully to awakening from this dream. Until we do, we are on both sides, experiencing moments of release, and at other times, we are very much holding onto the things of this world. We believe all will be released through death, but this is a false belief. We are released only when our false beliefs are transformed.
 
Today, we remind ourselves of our reality. We give up our illusion of control because, on our own, we don't have a clue! We don't know who we are, where we are going, and what we are doing. "I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself." (T.31.V.17.7) (ACIM OE T.31.V.60) Jesus tells us, "There is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this," (T.31.17.6) (ACIM OE T.31.V.59) because we fear to lose who we think we are and what we have made of ourselves. We have chosen to walk this path because we are tired, we are lost, and we are weary of trying to find peace and happiness where it does not exist. When we turn within, we experience glimpses of the truth. To listen to His Voice is to be reminded of our Identity. It is to hear the forgotten song, calling us back to where we never left. "Listen, ---perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered." (T.21.I.6.1) (ACIM OE T.21II.8)
 
We continue to read, "What is Forgiveness?" (W.PII.Q1), daily with each Lesson. Without forgiveness, we cannot know the truth about ourselves. Until our false ideas are released, we keep ourselves bound to our false identity. We maintain our judgments, which Jesus says we ". . . will not raise to doubt" (W.PII.Q1.2.1), although they are not true. The distortions in our minds must be seen if they are to be released. When our minds are closed against the truth, we refuse to question our beliefs, and we refuse to look behind our defenses. We keep our thoughts away from reason and maintain our fixed positions. It is a defense against the truth. We are trying to protect what we have made from what has been given us by God.
 
When the ego demands we protect and defend our perspectives and our positions, we can instead, stop for a moment and choose instead to step back and ask for another interpretation from the Holy Spirit. When the temptation is there to react to any request, we can take a moment to go within and ask for guidance. When we want to make a point in an argument, we can instead take a moment to reflect whether anything needs to be said. When we get up in the morning, feeling upset, we can recognize we have chosen the ego, and we can do a restorative, as described in Chapter 30, "Rules for Decision." When we judge a brother, we can ask for help to release our ideas and ask for His interpretation of how to see our brother. Moment by moment, we are choosing Heaven or hell.
 
I was recently sharing about a difficult and painful event experienced by a friend. I described it as challenging and it triggered a concern in me about her wellbeing. However, later she revealed she had not only moved on from this experience, but she described it as a wonderful gift. She had taken a journey through seeming crucifixion to a resurrection, such that the painful experience had actually taught her an important lesson and one she deeply valued. This was a beautiful demonstration for me that we don't know what anything is for. My thoughts and judgments about the situation were wrong. They were all in the past. All things are truly lessons God would have me learn.
 
Helen was given a message in October 1975 that I found particularly poignant and relevant to this Lesson. While it is rather long, I include it here for you to dwell on because there is so much wisdom to ponder here on how we might go about our lives.
 
Be comforted.
You are not asked to do anything.
There is a time when to step
back is all that is asked of you.
It is a time of rest and not of
strain; a time of peace and
not a time of conflict.
That time is almost here.
It seems fearful
because it is not under your control.
But think a minute; stop and
think honestly about what your control has done;
what it has brought to you.

You have been caught in a trap from which you never could escape.
Conflict, guilt, and fear have come with you and never left your side.
Each one of you has done this differently,
yet each has come to the same place;
the same impasse.
And now it seems to each of you that there is no escape.
For it is true that you cannot escape alone.
Your stories seem to differ,
for they do take different forms.
Yet their one content makes you brothers.
Dwell not upon the differences or you are lost.
It is in recognizing the common content;
the common need, that you are saved!

The mess that is your lives is an illusion.
What can the form of dreams resolve?
There is no answer to a question not yet asked,
for it would not be recognized.
Ask only this: Will I fulfill the function given me?
What else is there to ask?
Why must I know the form in which the answer comes to me?
God answers, "Yes" and it is done.
No more than this is meaningful to you.

It is not He Who would withhold the future and leave you fearful.
You could not accept His "yes" in forms you would not understand.
Things still in time unfold as is appointed them,
and many things remain undone as yet.
Plans based upon intangibles cannot be fully shown to you.
And what has not as yet occurred must be intangible.
This phase of learning has a single lesson
for all the forms your problems seem to take.

To God all things are possible,
but you must ask His answer only of Himself.
Perhaps you think you do,
but be you sure that if you had (did) you would be quiet now
and wholly undismayed by anything.
Do not attempt to guess His Will for you.
Do not assume that you are right
because an answer seems to come from Him.
Be sure you ask, and then be still and let Him speak.
There is no problem He cannot resolve,
for it is never He Who keeps apart
some questions to be solved by someone else.
You cannot share the world with Him
and make half of it His while half belongs to you.
Truth makes no compromise.
To keep apart a little is to keep all separate.
Your life, complete and whole,
belongs to God or none of it is His.
There is no thought in all the world
that seems more terrible.

Yet it is only when this thought appears in perfect clarity
that there is hope in peace and safety for the mind so long kept dark and twisted to avoid the light.
This is the light.
Step back
and do not dwell upon the forms that seem to keep you bound.
You will fulfill your function.
And will have whatever you will need.
God does not fail.
But lay no limits on what you would give to Him to be resolved.
For He cannot offer a thousand answers
when but one is all there is.
Accept this one of Him,
and not one question will remain to ask.

Do not forget if you attempt to solve a problem,
you have judged it for yourself
and so you have betrayed your proper role.
Grandeur, which comes from God,
establishes that judgment is impossible for you.
But grandiosity insists you judge
and bring to this all problems that you have.
And what is the result?
Look carefully upon your life
and let it speak for you.

Is this frail breath and deep uncertainty your choice for you?
Or would you rather rest in surety,
certain you would not fail in your request
to have all problems happily resolved?
Do not mistake the fine disguises you can use to cover judgment.
It appears as charity, as mercy and as love;
as pity, understanding and as care.
And yet you know it is not what it seems
because the problem still remains unsolved
and comes to haunt your mind in evil dreams.

What have you kept from God
that you would hide behind your judgment?
What have you concealed
beneath the cloak of kindness and concern?
Use no one for your needs,
for that is "sin,"
and you will pay the penalty in guilt.

Remember you need nothing,
but you have an endless store of loving gifts to give.
But teach this lesson only to yourself.
Your brother will not learn it from your words
or from the judgments you have laid on him.
You need not even speak a word to him.
You cannot ask, "What shall I say to him?"
and hear God's answer.
Rather ask instead,
"Help me to see this brother through the eyes of truth
and not of judgment,"
and the help of God and all His angels
will respond.

For only here we rest.
We cast away our little judgments and our petty words;
our tiny problems and our false concerns.
We have attempted to be master of our destiny
and thought that peace lay there.
Freedom and judgment is impossible.
But by your side is One
Who knows the way.
Step back for Him
and let Him lead you
to the rest and silence
of the Word of God


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Love and Blessings, Sarah 
ACIM Original Edition
IV. Sin as an Adjustment   
 
16 The belief in sin is an adjustment. And an adjustment is a change; a shift in perception or a belief that what was so before has been made different. Every adjustment is therefore a distortion and calls upon defenses to uphold it against reality. Knowledge requires no adjustment and in fact is lost if any shift or change is undertaken. For this reduces it at once to mere perception-a way of looking in which certainty is lost and doubt has entered. To this impaired condition are adjustments necessary because they are not true. Who need adjust to truth, which calls on only what he is, to understand?
 
17 Adjustments of any kind are of the ego. For it is the ego's fixed belief that all relationships depend upon adjustments to make of them what it would have them be. Direct relationships, in which there are no interferences, are always seen as dangerous. The ego is the self-appointed mediator of all relationships, making whatever adjustments it deems necessary and interposing them between those who would meet to keep them separate and prevent their union. It is this studied interference which makes it difficult for you to recognize your holy relationship for what it is.
 
18 The holy do not interfere with truth. They are not afraid of it, for it is within the truth they recognized their holiness and rejoiced at what they saw. They looked on it directly, without attempting to adjust themselves to it or it to them. And so they saw that it was in them, not deciding first where they would have it be. Their looking merely asked a question, and it was what they saw that answered them. You make the world and then adjust to it, and it to you. Nor is there any difference between yourself and it in your perception, which made them both.
 
19 A simple question yet remains and needs an answer. Do you like what you have made-a world of murder and attack through which you thread your timid way through constant dangers, alone and frightened, hoping at most that death will wait a little longer before it overtakes you and you disappear? You made this up. It is a picture of what you think you are, of how you see yourself. A murderer is frightened, and those who kill fear death. All these are but the fearful thoughts of those who would adjust themselves to a world made fearful by their adjustments. And they look out in sorrow from what is sad within and see the sadness there.
 
20 Have you not wondered what the world is really like; how it would look through happy eyes? The world you see is but a judgment on yourself. It is not there at all. Yet judgment lays a sentence on it, justifies it, and makes it real. Such is the world you see-a judgment on yourself and made by you. This sickly picture of yourself is carefully preserved by the ego, whose image it is and which it loves, and placed outside you in the world. And to this world must you adjust, as long as you believe this picture is outside and has you at its mercy. This world is merciless, and were it outside you, you should indeed be fearful. Yet it was you who made it merciless, and now if mercilessness seems to look back at you, it can be corrected.
 
21 Who in a holy relationship can long remain unholy? The world the holy see is one with them, just as the world the ego looks upon is like itself. The world the holy see is beautiful because they see their innocence in it. They did not tell it what it was; they did not make adjustments to fit their orders. They gently questioned it and whispered, "What are you?" And He Who watches over all perception answered. Take not the judgment of the world as answer to the question, "What am I?"
 
22 The world believes in sin, but the belief that made it as you see it is not outside you. Seek not to make the Son of God  adjust to his insanity. There is a stranger in him who wandered carelessly into the home of truth, and who will wander off. He came without a purpose, but he will not remain before the shining light the Holy Spirit offered and you accepted. For there the stranger is made homeless and you are welcome.
 
23 Ask not this transient stranger, "What am I?" He is the only thing in all the universe that does not know. Yet it is he you asked, and it is to his answer that you would adjust. This one wild thought, fierce in its arrogance and yet so tiny and so meaningless it slips unnoticed through the universe of truth, becomes your guide. To it you turn to ask the meaning of the universe. And of the one blind thing in all the seeing universe of truth you ask, "How shall I look upon the Son of God?"
 
24 Does one ask judgment of what is totally bereft of judgment? And if you have, would you believe the answer and adjust to it as if it were the truth? The world you look on is the answer that it gave you, and you have given it power to adjust the world to make its answer true. You asked this puff of madness for the meaning of your unholy relationship and adjusted it according to its insane answer. How happy did it make you? Did you meet with joy to bless the Son of God and give him thanks for all the happiness which he held out to you? Did you recognize each other as the eternal gift of God to you? Did you see the holiness that shone in both of you to bless the other? That is the purpose of your holy relationship. Ask not the means of its attainment of the one thing that still would have it be unholy. Give it no power to adjust the means and end.
 
25 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 each other'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.
 
26 Such is my will for both of you and for each of you for one another and for himself. Here there is only holiness and joining without limit. For what is Heaven but union, direct and perfect, and without the veil of fear upon it? Here are we one, looking with perfect gentleness upon each other and on ourselves. Here all thoughts of any separation between us become impossible. You who were prisoners in separation are now made free in Paradise. And here would I unite with you, my friends, my brothers, and my Self. Your gift unto each other has given me the certainty our union will be soon.
 
27 Share, then, this faith with me and know that it is justified. There is no fear in perfect love because it knows no sin and it must look on others as on itself. Looking with charity within, what can it fear without? The innocent see safety, and the pure in heart see God within His Son and look unto the Son to lead them to the Father. And where else would they go but where they will to be? Each of you now will lead the other to the Father as surely as God created His Son holy and kept him so. In your brother is the light of God's eternal promise of your immortality. See him as sinless, and there can be no fear in you.
     

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