|
|
| Graphic by ©Deposit Photos |
A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 28 THE UNDOING OF FEAR
VIII. THE BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP
60 God asks for nothing, and His Son, like Him, need ask for nothing. For there is no lack in him. An empty space, a little gap, would be a lack. And it is only there that he could want for something he has not. A space where God is not, a gap between the Father and the Son is not the Will of either, who have promised to be one. God's promise is a promise to Himself, and there is no one who could be untrue to what He wills as part of what He is. The promise that there is no gap between Himself and what He is cannot be false. What will can come between what must be one, and in Whose wholeness there can be no gap?
|
A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK for STUDENTS
WHAT IS THE SECOND COMING?
<AUDIO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
Christ's Second Coming, which is sure as God,
is merely the correction of mistakes
and the return of sanity. It is
a part of the condition which restores
the never-lost, and re-establishes
what is forever and forever true.
It is the invitation to God's Word
to take illusion's place; the willingness
to let forgiveness rest upon all things
without exceptions and without reserve.
It is this all-inclusive nature of
Christ's Second Coming that permits it to
embrace the world, and hold you safe within
its gentle advent, which encompasses
all living things with you. There is no end
to the release the Second Coming brings,
as God's creation must be limitless.
Forgiveness lights the Second Coming's way
because it shines on everyone as well.
*And thus is oneness recognized at last.
*this line is not in Notes
The Second Coming ends the lessons which
the Holy Spirit teaches, making way
for the Last Judgment, in which learning ends
in one last summary which will extend
beyond itself, and reaching up to God.
The Second Coming is the time in which
all minds are given to the hands of Christ,
to be returned to Spirit in the Name
of true creation and the Will of God.
The Second Coming is the one event
in time which time itself can not affect.
For everyone who ever came to die,
or yet will come or who is present now,
is equally released from what he made.
In this equality is Christ restored
as one Identity, in Which all Sons
of God acknowledge that they all are one.
And God the Father smiles upon His Son,
His one creation and His only joy.
Pray that this Second Coming will be soon,
but do not rest with that. It needs your eyes
and ears and hands and feet. It needs your voice,
and most of all it needs your willingness.
Let us rejoice that we can do God's Will,
and join together in Its holy light.
Behold, the Son of God is one in us,
and we can reach our Father's Love through him.
~ Original Hand Script
|
A COURSE IN MIRACLES
DAILY LESSONS
L e s s o n 302
Where darkness was, I look upon the light.
<AUDIO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
Father, our eyes are opening at last.
Your holy world awaits us, as our sight
is finally restored, and we can see.
We thought we suffered, but we had forgot
the Son whom You created. Now we know
that darkness is our own imagining,
and light is there for us to look upon.
Christ's vision changes darkness into light,
for fear must disappear when love has come.
Let me forgive Your holy world today,
that I may look upon its holiness
and understand it but reflects my own.
Our Love awaits us as we walk to Him,
and walks beside us, showing us the way.
He fails in nothing. He the end we seek,
and He the means by which we go to Him.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
|
|
ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 302
Where darkness was, I look upon the light.
Sarah's Commentary:
When we experience a miracle, our perception is shifted. We no longer see things quite the way we saw them before. Jesus said the reason for his bringing the Course to the world when he did was to facilitate a "celestial speedup." We are part of this speedup, as we engage in the process of awakening. A celestial speedup is the recognition that there is no time and nothing has happened. It is all a dream. Now he says that ". . . our eyes are opening at last."(W.302.1.1) Now there is more light in our lives. Enlightenment is the opening up to the light and to the truth of who we are and always have been; and the Second Coming is the correction of our mistakes and the return to sanity. This is the restoration of our true Self, which was never lost. We just forgot because we experienced the temporary insanity of the separation. Temporary? Yes. "Only an instant does this world endure." (W.300) Our release is just a thought away ". . . from what we made." (W.184.15.7)
"Now we see that darkness is our own imagining, and light is there for us to look upon."
(W.302.1.5) We made up the stories of our lives. We gave the events of our lives our own meaning and our own interpretation. We saw attack where love or a call for love was all there ever was. We experience fear, yet ". . . fear must disappear when love has come." (W.302.1.6) The only way out of this darkness is by bringing our awareness to our fears and being totally willing to release them. There is nothing more than that to do. In fact, if we try to undertake to do anything more, we are getting in the way by putting the ego in charge of its own undoing, and that will never work.
If we accept everything in our lives, including the things that seem dark, and recognize they are all a part of the classroom to help us to learn to forgive, we can become happy learners. What this means is that when our purpose is to awaken, we can be happy about everything that shows up because it is all for the purpose of releasing the darkness so the light that we are can shine through. It is always there behind the dark clouds of our own thoughts. Our thoughts are just hallucinations. As Nouk Sanchez says in her blog, "Contrary to what the ego teaches, the people and things that trigger us are indeed the very gifts that hasten our return to Love, to our Holy Self, and the immense safety of our Being. However, through the ego filter, we not only reject these gifts but fiercely defend our (ego) self from this valuable portal to liberation."
We can choose to be grateful for the valleys that we go through, where some of our greatest insights can take place. These times can feel like battles in our lives, but all we are battling is our perception, which keeps our joy out of our awareness. Joy is always there, but the battle that seems to be going on in our minds is actually between what the ego tells us and the truth. It seems like two wills are battling, yet the Holy Spirit is still and does not do battle. He simply waits patiently for us to change our minds.
We think we need or want something to be different than it is. Thus, we suffer because our wanting things to be different than they are makes us unhappy. Now we must learn to surrender everything wholly to Spirit and trust that all is for our good. "Some of your greatest advances you have judged as failures, and some of your deepest retreats you have evaluated as success." (T.18.V.1.6) (ACIM OE T.18.VI.41) Our judgment of what is good or bad brings suffering. Our job is simply to look at our darkness and be willing for it to be shifted. The result is always peace. We allow the valleys to be what they are so we can experience the hilltop when we are ready. It does not matter how much time this takes. Time is our friend when our desire is to use everything in our lives for awakening.
There were times in my life when everything seemed hopeless and dark. Yet even without the deep resolve and devotion I have now, there was a part of my mind that knew there was value in these dark valleys, even as I was in the midst of them. I found myself watching the experience and recognized the "tenderizing" effect it had on me. I find there is a callousness or lack of compassion we can develop when everything is going our way. We are not being deeply challenged or humbled by events in our lives. I suppose it is a kind of arrogance when everything in our lives seems to be working. It is a kind of egocentric focus, where we can become insensitive to others. Falling into the dark pit of despair can teach us more compassion for ourselves and others.
The experience of having the heart broken open can bring a deeper level of awareness and empathy. Through each of these experiences, I found I was able to look deeper at the caverns in my mind where the openings had been shut to the light. Looking into these dark places always brought new awareness and beauty for which I felt grateful in the end. No, it is not fun nor easy to go there, but when we become the observer of the experience, we can move through them with a greater degree of detachment. There is no way to get to the love without going through the fear.
When we become the observer of our experiences, we come from a place of awareness from above the battleground. We distance ourselves from the dream and become the observer of the experience, with the love of Jesus holding our hands and hearts as we go through these dark places in our minds. I have found, even in the midst of the darkness of the distress and pain, there can still be a realization that we are not the experience of the distress and pain. We are the one observing it. Now we can experience it as if it were happening to someone else, like a character in a play with whom we identify, but we know we are not this character. It is like watching a movie and identifying with the characters, but knowing we are the watcher and not the characters in the movie. Thus, there is some detachment. Jesus says we can actually watch what is happening while smiling at the idea that there is anything real going on.
Everywhere we go, our Love, ". . . walks beside us showing us the way." (W.302.2.1) When we are entering these dark and dismal places, Spirit is walking with us. It reminds me of the Lesson where we are told, "He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and cleanses me." (W.222.1.2) Or, as he says in Lesson 125, "He speaks from nearer than your heart to you. His Voice is closer than your hand. His Love is everything you are and that He is; the same as you, and you the same as He." (W.125.7.2-4) We never go alone. "He fails in nothing." (W.302.2.2) What a beautiful reminder! "Where darkness was I look upon the light." (W.302) We are not these dense beings. Where we think that we are, there is only light, but there is no way around the darkness of our thoughts. Covering them over, trying to stay positive, or trying to dismiss them is simply a spiritual bypass or a denial of our experience. This will never work, as the darkness is still there, just covered over. Thus, courage and willingness are called for to look with honesty and dedication behind our defenses. It is the only way through to the light. Instead of bracing ourselves against our feelings, we surrender into them, feel them, accept them, examine the beliefs behind them, and keep looking at them with Spirit.
I will share, as briefly as possible, a recent experience of feeling fear. I initially tried to distract myself from it. I was concerned about a family member who seemed to be suffering and in great difficulty in his life. I was gripped with thoughts of fear that were in my mind with all kinds of tragic scenarios playing out. I was reminded our thoughts are nothing but hallucinations. With each thought came a scenario like a movie, playing in the mind, but the scenes were all scenes of devastation and with them came a lot of fear. I kept trying to give over the fear, but it just kept creeping back into my mind. I tried to trace it back to a thought. What was that thought? It became apparent that I believed the Son of God could suffer and with that thought came evidence of that suffering. I forgot this is his perfect classroom that he had chosen and that he is not a victim. I was judging the situation and choosing to see it as wrong and giving my mind evidence of ultimate destruction, which brought up a lot of fear. I was reminded of his script, which is playing out as it was chosen. I realized my belief in suffering was an error. When I gave over that belief, all the fear was lifted from my mind.
The Lesson is always the same, regardless of the situation: "Forgive, and you will see this differently." (W.193.3.7) It does not matter what the problem is, there is only one lesson to be learned. We are called to trust and to remember again that the world is a classroom and we are called to watch our thoughts and beliefs and keep turning them over for healing. We are always remembering our purpose. When we keep focused on our purpose of healing the mind, everything and everyone that shows up on our path contributes to that purpose.
The Lesson is all about how we have wrongly perceived everything and everyone, based on our own thoughts, values, concepts, and beliefs. Now we are called to forgive our misperceptions so we can see with vision. We are asked to recognize that our unforgiving thoughts are keeping us from the love we are. They are beliefs that we have sinned, are guilty, and now we expect the world to deliver the punishment we think we deserve.
Today, we pray this prayer to ourselves---that we choose another way, realizing we have made a wrong choice. "Our Love awaits us as we go to Him, and walks beside us showing us the way. He fails in nothing. He the End we seek, and He the Means by which we go to Him." (W.302.2.1-3) Through forgiveness, God's love is reflected in this world. He is the End we seek in that our goal is to know who we are as One with God. We already are One with God, but we don't know our own reality. He is the Means because His love will be the Source of our comfort along the way we seem to travel. We are not alone. He goes with us wherever we go. We rest in Him. His Love will be reflected in specific forms in our lives for as long as we need to experience it in that way and as long as we think we are in bodily form.
With the introduction to the question "What is the Second Coming?" (W.PII.Q9), and the coming section, "What is the Last Judgment?" (W.PII.Q10) I decided to have a look at the Book of Revelation in the Bible. While I am not very familiar with the Bible, the view presented in the Book of Revelation is exactly what is being refuted in the teachings and Lessons that we are currently reading. In fact, in looking at the Book of Revelation, I found the words from the Lesson yesterday, "And God Himself shall wipe away all tears." (W.301) Now it is all being reinterpreted for us in this Course.
The Book of Revelation reiterates the fall of Satan and the doom he and his angels are bound for. We are shown the duties of all creatures and angels of Heaven and the promises of the Saints, who will live forever and ever with Jesus in the New Jerusalem. The Book of Revelation is lavish in colorful descriptions of the visions, which proclaim the Last Days before the triumphant return of Jesus as a powerful world ruler, ushering in of his kingdom. The Book of Revelation reveals the series of devastations poured out upon the earth such as the mark of the beast "666," the climactic battle of Armageddon, and the binding of Satan. Even though we may not have been schooled in this teaching, it permeates the culture, and there is a sense of fear about this Second Coming and especially about the Last Judgment. This fear seems to be exacerbated daily with discussions of the devastation of the world. Clearly, Jesus takes issue with this in the Course and redefines it entirely.
Instead of reigning terror on the world, the Second Coming ". . . is merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity." (W.PII.Q9.1.1) All that happens is it ". . . restores the never lost, and re-establishes what is forever and forever true." (W.PII.Q9.1.2) It is an entirely different meaning from the Biblical teachings about fear and punishment. In the Bible, the Second Coming is about Jesus returning to judge the living and the dead. In the Course, Jesus teaches that the Second Coming is about our decision to ". . . let forgiveness rest on all things without exception and without reserve," (W.PII.Q9.1.3) so we can awaken to the truth of who we are. Thus, it is undoing what never happened. It is the recognition that we have been mistaken. The entire world of time and space has been nothing but a dream. Now we are waking up. When all minds have joined in this, the Second Coming will be the total undoing of the dream. Instead of being fearful, it is our beautiful awakening and remembering who we are. I even recently heard a new interpretation of the dreaded "666." Turned upside down it becomes "999." At one thousand, we are totally in the light and "999" is close to total willingness.
I will speak more about the Second Coming in later Lessons. It is such a beautiful symbol of the healing of our minds and the correction of our false beliefs where we are all equally released from the belief in sin and guilt. It is not about our understanding but only our willingness to see we have been wrong about everything, and now we can be grateful this is so.
Love and blessings, Sarah
|
VIII. The Beautiful Relationship
60 God asks for nothing, and His Son, like Him, need ask for nothing. For there is no lack in him. An empty space, a little gap, would be a lack. And it is only there that he could want for something he has not. A space where God is not, a gap between the Father and the Son is not the Will of either, who have promised to be one. God's promise is a promise to
Himself, and there is no one who could be untrue to what He wills as part of what He
is. The promise that there is no gap between Himself and what He is cannot be false. What will can come between what
must be one, and in Whose wholeness there can
be no gap?
61 The beautiful relationship you have with all your brothers is a part of you because it is a part of God Himself. Are you not sick if you deny yourself your wholeness and your health, the Source of help, the Call to healing, and the Call to heal? Your savior waits for healing, and the world waits with him. Nor are you apart from it. For healing will be one or not at all, its oneness being where the healing lies. What could correct for separation but its opposite? There is no middle ground in any aspect of salvation. You accept it wholly or accept it not. What is unseparated must be joined. And what is joined cannot be separate.
62 Either there is a gap between you and your brother, or you
are as one. There is no in between, no other choice, and no allegiance to be split between the two. A split allegiance is but faithlessness to both and merely sets you spinning round, to grasp uncertainly at any straw that seems to hold some promise of relief. Yet who can build his home upon a straw and count on it as shelter from the wind? The body can be made a home like this because it lacks foundation in the truth. And yet,
because it does, it can be seen as
not your home but merely as an aid to help you reach the home where God abides.
63 With
this as purpose
is the body healed. It is not used to witness to the dream of separation and disease. Nor is it idly blamed for what it did not do. It serves to help the healing of God's Son, and for
this purpose it cannot
be sick. It will not join a purpose not your own, and you have
chosen that it not be sick. All miracles are based upon this choice and given you the instant it is made. No forms of sickness are immune because the choice cannot be made in terms of form. The choice of sickness
seems to be a form, yet it is one, as is its opposite. And
you are sick or well accordingly.
64 But never you alone. This world is but the dream that you can
be alone and think without affecting those apart from you. To be alone must mean you are apart, and if you are, you cannot
but be sick. This seems to prove that you must be apart. Yet all it means is that you tried to keep a promise to be true to faithlessness. Yet faithlessness
is sickness. It is like the house set upon straw. It seems to be quite solid and substantial in itself. Yet its stability cannot be judged apart from its foundation. If it rests on straw, there is no need to bar the door and lock the windows and make fast the bolts. The wind
will topple it, and rain
will come and carry it into oblivion.
65 What is the sense in seeking to be safe in what was
made for danger and for fear? Why burden it with further locks and chains and heavy anchors when its weakness lies not in itself but in the frailty of the little gap of nothingness whereon it stands? What
can be safe which rests upon a shadow? Would you build your home upon what will collapse beneath a feather's weight?
66 Your home is built upon your brother's health, upon his happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him. No secret promise you have made instead has shaken the Foundation of his home. The winds will blow upon it, and the rain will beat against it but with no effect. The world will wash away, and yet this house will stand forever, for its strength lies not within itself alone. It is an ark of safety, resting on God's promise that His Son is safe forever in Himself. What gap can interpose itself between the safety of this shelter and its Source? From here the body can be seen as what it is and neither less nor more in worth than the extent to which it can be used to liberate God's Son unto his home. And with this holy purpose is it made a home of holiness a little while because it shares your Father's Will with
you.
ON LINE SEARCHABLE Original Edition
|
|
To UNSUBSCRIBE, Open email sent to you and scroll to bottom. Click where it says:
[Message clipped]
View entire message
Scroll to the bottom and click the "UnSubscribe Button"
|
|
|
