Lesson 231
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See Your Brother's Sinlessness
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 20 THE PROMISE OF THE RESURRECTION
IX. THE VISION OF SINLESSNESS 
    
69 Your brother's sinlessness is given you in shining light, to look on with the Holy Spirit's vision and to rejoice in along with Him. For peace will come to all who ask for it with real desire and sincerity of purpose, shared with the Holy Spirit and at one with Him on what salvation is. Be willing, then, to see your brother sinless that Christ may rise before your vision and give you joy. And place no value on your brother's body, which holds him to illusions of what he is. It is his desire to see his sinlessness, as it is yours. And bless the Son of God in your relationship, nor see in him what you have made of him.

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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK for STUDENTS
What is Salvation
WHAT IS SALVATION? 

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*IAMBIC PENTAMETER*
 
   Salvation is a promise, made by God,
   that you would find your way to Him at last.
   It cannot but be kept. It guarantees
   that time will have an end, and all the thoughts
   that have been born in time will end as well.
   God's Word is given every mind that thinks
   that it has separate thoughts, and will replace
   these thoughts of conflict with the Thought of peace.
 
   The Thought of peace was given to God's Son
   the instant that his mind had thought of war.
   There was no need for such a Thought before,
   for peace was given without opposite,
   and merely was. But when the mind is split,
   there is a need of healing. So the Thought
   Which has the power to heal the split became
   a part of every fragment of the mind
   which still was one, but failed to recognize
   its oneness. Now it did not know itself,
   and thought its own identity was lost.
 
   Salvation is undoing in the sense
   that it does nothing, failing to support
   the world of dreams and malice. Thus it lets
   illusions go. By not supporting them,
   it merely lets them quietly go down
   to dust. And what they hid is now revealed;
   an altar to the holy Name of God,
   whereon His Word is written, with the gifts
   of your forgiveness laid before It, and
   the memory of God not far behind.
 
   Let us come daily to this holy place,
   and spend a while together. Here we share
   our final dream. It is a dream in which
   there is no sorrow, for it holds a hint
   of all the glory given us by God.
   The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees
   are budding now, and birds have come to live
   within their branches. Earth is being born
   again in new perception. Night has gone,
   and we have come together in the light.
 
   From here we give salvation to the world,
   for it is here salvation was received.
   The song of our rejoicing is the call
   to all the world that freedom is returned,
   that time is almost over, and God's Son
   has but an instant more to wait until
   his Father is remembered, dreams are done,
   eternity has shined away the world,
   and only Heaven now exists at all.
 
    ~ Original Hand Script October 1, 1970
 

  
CIRCLE OF ATONEMENT ~ COMMENTARY
          
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DAILY LESSON
SonShip Workbook
 L e s s o n 231
Father, I will but to remember You.


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    What can I seek for, Father, but Your Love?
    Perhaps I think I seek for something else;
    a something I have called by many names.
    Yet is Your Love the only thing I seek,
    or ever sought. For there is nothing else
    that I could ever really want to find.
    Let me remember You. What else could I
    desire but the truth about myself?
 
   This is your will, my brother. And you share
   this will with me, and with the One as well
   Who is our Father. To remember Him
   is Heaven. This we seek. And only this
   is what it will be given us to find.

    ~ Original Handscript of ACIM  
 
  
          
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 
ACIM Edmonton, CA
LESSON 231

Father, I will but to remember You.

Sarah's Commentary:   

Clearly, at the deepest level of our minds, Jesus tells us the only thing we truly want is to remember God and to know His Love. "This is your will, my brother. And you share this will with me [Jesus talking] and with the One as well Who is our Father." (W.231.2.1)
 
Jesus is aware that we do not necessarily think this way. We still believe there are other things we want. We still fear God would demand sacrifice from us if we chose His Will. We still have a fear of God. Our fear creates an obstacle to acceptance of His love. Jesus recognizes our fear and our search for happiness in the things of this world when he says: "Perhaps I think I seek for something else; a something I have called by many names." (W.231.1.2)
 
This may be fame, fortune, romance, security, family, a good time, a career, and more of anything we think we are currently lacking. They are all forms of specialness through which we seek the love we believe is lacking in us. Whatever the form, Jesus reminds us there is nothing to feel guilty about in the things we seek, as we came here to have these experiences, and we will do what we came here to do. Yet we are seeking for what can never be found in anything in the world. Only by remembering what we are and by choosing to look within will we know we already have everything we seek. Love, joy, and peace are what we truly want. We falsely believe we will find the peace we seek in the things of this world, but it can never be found there.
 
This is well-illustrated in the movie "Bedazzled," where the character Elliot, played by Brendon Fraser, thinks he knows what he needs and makes a pact with the devil to receive his wishes only to find there is no true happiness, peace, contentment, joy, nor anything of lasting value in his idle wishes when they are actually met. His wishes are granted by the devil, but there is always a malevolent element to each wish that he did not expect. Of course, we have all had the same experience, but we still seem to cling to trying it out just one more time in the mistaken notion we can find satisfaction in the things of this world. Only when we recognize that the search is pointless, will we acknowledge our will is but to remember God, thus reconnecting with the truth of who we are and where the source of our real joy and peace truly lie.
 
When we apply the thought system of this teaching to our lives, we are increasingly seeing that the things of the world ultimately have not brought us peace, joy, nor a sense of wholeness. There have perhaps been many moments or even periods of pleasure in our lives, but they have no lasting effect and ultimately end in more suffering. Only a reconnection with our Source can bring us fulfillment. We are not asked to sacrifice any of our perceived pleasures while we still believe in their value. We will learn, over time, they are very fleeting and our interest in them as a source of love and joy will simply fall away. Increasingly, we will find that true and lasting joy is the outcome of continually bringing our mistaken thoughts to the Light.
 
As each layer of misperception is healed, deeper layers of the mind are revealed for healing. While this may bring resistance and potentially more conflict into our lives, returning to the thought system of the ego is not an option. Yes, it takes courage to go into the darkness, but it is the only way to discover the light that has always been there, under the guilt and fears we hold in the mind. The sin, guilt, and fear we hold produces the difficulties we encounter in our lives and the problems we perceive. We have not been aware until we became immersed in this teaching that the thoughts we hold in the mind are the cause of all our difficulties. We have believed, instead, that our difficulties mostly come from problems imposed on us from the world. Trying to solve these problems in form will never address the real problem, which is our choice for separation and with it the thought system of the ego based on sin, guilt, and fear.
 
All of these Lessons keep pointing out the same thing, which is that we have been mistaken in listening to the ego, and now we have the opportunity to make another choice and turn to another Teacher in our minds. Jesus is showing us that this is the only way out of despair. It is about letting go of our way and putting trust in him. What we have sought for in the world has not, and will not, work to bring us true and lasting peace and joy. It will never bring us the deep peace that is our inheritance because our peace is covered over with the deep sleep of amnesia.
 
We now have a new "What is?" section, and again we read this section for ten days as we do each Lesson, starting today with "What Is Salvation?" (W.PII.Q2) We are offered a definition that is a clear departure from the Christian perspective. To be saved in traditional Christian thinking, we must suffer and sacrifice, just like Jesus was perceived to have done through his crucifixion. It is all about atoning for our sins, but Jesus tells us that all we are saved from is our belief in guilt. As a result of our decision to believe the fairy tale of the ego that we have sinned, we now feel tremendous guilt. Therefore, the only thing we need to be saved from is our mistaken choice for the ego thought system. Clearly, who we really are does not need any salvation.
 
We save ourselves by taking responsibility for our dark thoughts and bringing them to the Holy Spirit. There is no one outside of ourselves to save us. The light is within us. The Holy Spirit is a symbol of that light, and it is a part of our own minds. It is all about our own decision to choose His healing light, which is what saves us from the domination of the ego. It is the same thing as choosing forgiveness or choosing the miracle. It is a decision to remember what we are in truth, by being willing to bring the blocks to love to the light.
 
Salvation is described as ". . . a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last." (W.PII.Q2.1.1) It is no idle promise, but a certainty that ". . . cannot but be kept." (W.PII.Q2.1.2) It comes with a guarantee from God that ". . . time will have an end," (W.PII.Q2.1.3) and all our thoughts of conflict will be replaced by ". . . the Thought of peace." (W.PII.Q2.1.4) It is a certainty because we are already saved. In this moment, we are at home in God, but in our sleeping state, we are not aware of this. These are very encouraging words for us, anytime we get discouraged. They bring power and assurance that we have never left God's Mind and are still one with Him. We experience that power when we let illusions go.
 
What His promise establishes is the Atonement Principle, which is that we have never left God and have never changed ourselves into these human beings who are striving for the "goodies" of this world. We are still One with God, dreaming of exile. So how could the promise not hold true when it is already the truth about us? We are simply unaware of it. Through forgiveness, we open space in our minds for the truth. Through forgiveness, the mistaken choice for the ego mind is undone. This is what salvation offers, and the power to undertake the undoing comes from our own minds. It comes as part of our agreement to look at the ego, at work in our lives, and choose against it, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
 
We will never be thrust into awakening. The process is gentle. We determine how quickly we go. As Jesus reminds us, "My salvation comes from me." (W.70) All guilt is solely an invention of my mind. While it is tempting to lay blame elsewhere, which would make me a victim of outside forces, it also keeps me locked in the ego dream. As we recognize we share God's Will for happiness, and accept His promise into our minds, we are born again in Christ. In the undoing of all that interferes with our awareness of the Christ Self, all thoughts of conflict are replaced with the Thought of Peace.

Love and Blessings, Sarah 
ACIM Original Edition
IX. The Vision of Sinlessness   
 
67 Vision will come to you at first in glimpses, but they will be enough to show you what is given you who see your brother sinless. Truth is restored to you through your desire, as it was lost to you through your desire for something else. Open the holy place which 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.
 
68 Do you not want to know your own Identity? Would you not happily exchange your doubts for certainty? Would you not willingly be free of misery and learn again of joy? Your holy relationship offers all this to you. As it was given you, so will be its effects. And as its holy purpose was not made by you, the means by which its happy end is yours is also not of you. Rejoice in what is yours but for the asking and think not that you need make either means or end. All this is given you who would but see your brother sinless. All this is given, waiting on your desire but to receive it. Vision is freely given to those who ask to see.
 
69 Your brother's sinlessness is given you in shining light, to look on with the Holy Spirit's vision and to rejoice in along with Him. For peace will come to all who ask for it with real desire and sincerity of purpose, shared with the Holy Spirit and at one with Him on what salvation is. Be willing, then, to see your brother sinless that Christ may rise before your vision and give you joy. And place no value on your brother's body, which holds him to illusions of what he is. It is his desire to see his sinlessness, as it is yours. And bless the Son of God in your relationship, nor see in him what you have made of him.
 
70 The Holy Spirit guarantees that what God willed and gave you shall be yours. This is your purpose now, and the vision that makes it yours is ready to be given. You have the vision which enables each one to see the body not. And as you look upon each other, you will see an altar to your Father, holy as Heaven, glowing with radiant purity and sparkling with the shining lilies you laid upon it. What can you value more than this? Why do you think the body is a better home, a safer shelter for God's Son? Why would you rather look on it than on the truth? How can the engine of destruction be preferred and chosen to replace the holy home the Holy Spirit offers, where He will dwell with you?
 
71 The body is the sign of weakness, vulnerability, and loss of power. Can such a savior help you? Would you turn in your distress and need for help unto the helpless? Is the pitifully little the perfect choice to call upon for strength? Judgment will seem to make your savior weak. Yet it is you who need his strength. There is no problem, no event or situation, no perplexity that vision will not solve. All is redeemed when looked upon with vision. For this is not your sight, and brings with it the laws beloved of Him Whose sight it is.
 
72 Everything looked upon with vision falls gently into place according to the laws brought to it by His calm and certain sight. The end for everything He looks upon is always sure. For it will meet His purpose, seen in unadjusted form and suited perfectly to meet it. Destructiveness becomes benign, and sin is turned to blessing under His gentle gaze. What can the body's eyes perceive, with power to correct? Its eyes adjust to sin, unable to overlook it in any form and seeing it everywhere, in everything. Look through its eyes, and everything will stand condemned before you. All that could save you, you will never see. Your holy relationship, the source of your salvation, will be deprived of meaning, and its most holy purpose bereft of means for its accomplishment.
 
73 Judgment is but a toy, a whim, the senseless means to play the idle game of death in your imagination. But vision sets all things right, bringing them gently within the kindly sway of Heaven's laws. What if you recognized this world is an hallucination? What if you really understood you made it up? What if you realized that those who seem to walk about in it, to sin and die, attack and murder and destroy themselves, are wholly unreal? Could you have faith in what you see if you accepted this? And would you see it?
 
74 Hallucinations disappear when they are recognized for what they are. This is the healing and the remedy. Believe them not, and they are gone. And all you need to do is recognize you did this. Once you accept this simple fact and take unto yourself the power you gave them, you are released from them. One thing is sure-hallucinations serve a purpose, and when that purpose is no longer held, they disappear. Therefore, the question never is whether you want them, but always, do you want the purpose which they serve? This world seems to hold out many purposes, each different and with different values. Yet they are all the same. Again there is no order but a seeming hierarchy of values.
 
75 Only two purposes are possible. And one is sin, the other holiness. Nothing is in between, and which you choose determines what you see. For what you see is merely how you elect to meet your goal. Hallucinations serve to meet the goal of madness. They are the means by which the outside world, projected from within, adjusts to sin and seems to witness to its reality. It still is true that nothing is without. Yet upon nothing are all projections made. For it is the projection which gives the "nothing" all the meaning that it holds.
 
76 What has no meaning cannot be perceived. And meaning always looks within to find itself and then looks out. All meaning that you give the world outside must thus reflect the sight you saw within; or better, if you saw at all or merely judged against. Vision is the means by which the Holy Spirit translates your nightmares into happy dreams; your wild hallucinations that show you all the fearful outcomes of imagined sin into the calm and reassuring sights with which He would replace them. These gentle sights and sounds are looked on happily and heard with joy. They are His substitutes for all the terrifying sights and screaming sounds the ego's purpose brought to your horrified awareness. They step away from sin, reminding you that it is not reality which frightens you and that the errors which you made can be corrected.
 
77 When you have looked on what seemed terrifying and seen it change to sights of loveliness and peace; when you have looked on scenes of violence and death and watched them change to quiet views of gardens under open skies, with clear, life-giving water running happily beside them in dancing brooks that never waste away, who need persuade you to accept the gift of vision? And after vision, who is there who could refuse what must come after? Think but an instant just on this-you can behold the holiness God gave His Son. And never need you think that there is something else for you to see.
           

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