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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 18 "THE DREAM AND THE REALITY"
VIII. I NEED DO NOTHING
68 Here is the ultimate release which everyone will one day find in his own way, at his own time. We do not need this time. Time has been saved for you because you are together. This is the special means this course is using to save you time. You are not making use of the course if you insist on using means which have served others well, neglecting what was made for you. Save time for me by only this one preparation and practice, doing nothing else. "I need do nothing" is a statement of allegiance, a truly undivided loyalty. Believe it for just one instant, and you will accomplish more than is given to a century of contemplation or of struggle against temptation.
ON LINE: ACIM.OE.TX.CH 18.VIII
AUDIO: TEXT CH 18, VIII
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I
REVIEW VI
<AUDIO><VIDEO> Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
With this review, we take but one idea
each day, and practice it as often as
is possible. Besides the time we give
morning and evening, which should not be less
than fifteen minutes, and the hourly
remembrances we make throughout the day,
use the idea as often as you can
between them. Each of these ideas alone
would be sufficient for salvation, if
it is learned truly. Each would be enough
to give release to you and to the world
from every form of bondage, and invite
the memory of God to come again.
With this in mind, we start our practicing
in which we carefully review the thoughts
the Holy Spirit has bestowed on us
in our last twenty lessons. Each contains
the whole curriculum, if understood,
practiced, accepted and applied to all
the seeming happenings throughout the day.
One is enough. But for that one there must
be no exceptions made. And so we need
to use them all, and let them blend as one
as each contributes to the whole we learn.
These practice lessons, like our last review,
are centered round a central theme with which
we start and end each lesson. It is this:
"
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me."
The day begins and ends with this. And we
repeat it every time the hour strikes,
or we remember, in between, we have
a function that transcends the world we see.
Beyond this and a repetition of
the special thought we practice for the day,
no form of exercise is urged, except
a deep relinquishing of everything
that clutters up your mind, and makes it deaf
to reason, sanity and simple truth.
We will attempt to get beyond all words
and special forms of practicing for this
review. For we attempt this time to reach
a quickened pace along a shorter path
to the serenity and peace of God.
We merely close our eyes, and then forget
all that we thought we saw and understood.
For thus is freedom given us from all
we did not know and failed to understand.
There is but one exception to this lack
of structuring. Permit no idle thought
to go unchallenged. If you notice one,
deny its hold and hasten to assure
your mind that this is not what it would have.
Then gently let the thought which you denied
be given up in sure and quick exchange
for the idea we practice for the day.
When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim
your freedom from temptation, as you say:
"
This thought I do not want. I choose instead..."
And then repeat the idea for the day,
and let it take the place of what you thought.
Beyond such special applications of
each day's idea, we will add but few
formal expressions for specific thoughts
to aid your practicing. Instead we give
these times of quiet to the Teacher Who
instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives
our thoughts whatever meaning they may have.
To Him I offer this review for you.
I place you in His charge, and let Him teach
you what to do and say and think each time
you turn to Him. He will not fail to be
available to you each time you call
to Him to help you. Let us offer Him
the whole review we now begin, and let
us also not forget to Whom it has
been given, as we practice, day by day,
advancing toward the goal He set for us;
allowing Him to teach us how to go,
and trusting Him completely for the way
each practice period can best become
a loving gift of freedom to the world.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM September 1, 1970
ACIM OE WORKBOOK REVIEW VI
CIRCLE OF ATONEMENT ~ COMMENTARY on INTRODUCTION
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
DAILY LESSONS
L e s s o n 203
<AUDIO><VIDEO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
[183] I call upon God's name and on my own.
The name of God is my deliverance
from every thought of evil and of sin,
because it is my own as well His.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me
.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 203 Review VI [183] I call upon God's name and on my own.
Sarah's Commentary:
Each of our last twenty Lessons includes the whole curriculum. When we have an experience of the holy instant/miracle as a result of the application of any one of these Lessons, it is generalized to all Lessons. Each Lesson contributes to remind us who we are as a mind-spirit and not a body.
When we observe the conditioned mind that has been deceived into believing it is separate from others and living in a body, we become more and more aware of the values, beliefs, and concepts we hold about ourselves. We have come to accept what our parents, teachers, and friends have told us about ourselves. While there are some aspects of what they have told us that we have discarded, there are other things that are still playing in our subconscious minds. By looking at the thoughts, beliefs, and self-concepts we hold, we can begin to question their reality. As Byron Katie asks, "Is this the truth?" "Can you absolutely know it is the truth?" "How do you feel when you think this about yourself?" "Who would you be without that thought?"
We believe that there is a world we came to at our birth. We are convinced that we live in this world of form and that it continues to define us. We identify with the body and believe that we are lacking and need to pursue things in the world to make us happy. Since we feel we are at the mercy of events and circumstances outside of ourselves, we feel victimized and betrayed by the world. As we become aware of these thoughts, we accept responsibility for them and recognize that we have the power within to choose to let them go. It is the power of the Holy Spirit within the mind. Our part is to be vigilant of our thoughts and to bring them to awareness, realizing we are responsible for the way we interpret every event and circumstance. Now we can bring our interpretations and perceptions to the Holy Spirit, realizing we are wrong about everything we see and willing to be shown another way.
I am finding it very helpful to work daily with the Rules for Decision. (T.30.I) (ACIM OE T.30.II) The day starts by affirming, "Today I will make no decisions by myself." (T.30.I.2.2) "But think about the kind of day you want, and tell yourself there is a way in which this very day can happen just like that." (T.30.I.1.8) (ACIM OE T.30.II.2) The fact is that we can't make decisions by ourselves. They are always made with the ego or the Holy Spirit. When we choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide throughout the day, we give up our own ideas and our judgments about what we should do. It also means "you will not judge the situations where you will be called upon to make response. For if you judge them, you have set the rules for how you should react to them." (T.30.I.2.4-5) (ACIM OE T.30.II.5) The problem, according to Jesus, is that "You still make up your mind, and then decide to ask what you should do." (T.30.I.3.2) (ACIM OE T.30.II.6) "Throughout the day, at any time you think of it and have a quiet moment for reflection, tell yourself again the kind of day you want; the feelings you would have, the things you want to happen to you, and the things you would experience, and say: If I make no decisions by myself, this is the day that will be given me." (T.30.I.4.1-2) (ACIM OE T.30.II.7-8)
As we call upon God's Name and remember our union with Him, it opens the way to the surrender all of our own plans and decisions and to rest in Him, relying on His Voice to guide us throughout the day. In the Manual for Teachers, Jesus tells us that the power, fame, money, physical pleasure, and all the things we pursue in the world mean a lot to the body, but what would a mind need from all of this? The mind only strives for these things if it confuses itself with the body. When we put our investment into our bodily existence, we lose sight of our reality as the Christ Self. This Lesson affirms our reality as an extension of God.
As we bring our thoughts of sin, guilt, and fear forward, we can release them to the Name of God and only then can we have an experience of our true identity. Today, we take the thoughts that hurt us and place them on the inner altar where healing happens. We are not our own healers. We simply rely on the healing power of the Holy Spirit within. If healing does not happen, it is only because our willingness to release the painful thoughts is weak. We may still be holding onto the thoughts and beliefs, rather than truly giving them over; or we may willingly put them on the altar, but then take them back as the mind starts, once again, to obsess about a difficult situation. It does not matter. The practice we employ is to give over the thoughts again and again, as they come up.
Today, we look at every opportunity that shows up for us in the events and activities of the day. They are all important to our practice of forgiveness. We apply the teaching given us in each of these Lessons to specific experiences in our lives. All of these events in our day serve the Holy Spirit's curriculum, which is for the healing of the mind. "The Holy Spirit teaches you to use what the ego has made, to teach the opposite of what the ego has 'learned'." (T.7.IV.3.3) (ACIM OE T.7.IV.22) It can be said that nothing is happening to us, as it is all forus. What can be more important in our day than to shift the mind to what the Holy Spirit would have us recognize? Paying attention to the activity of the mind, where we judge, defend and attack, is essential. We stay focused on watching the mind and giving over everything we have learned to the Holy Spirit.
Today, we put our attention on the quiet center in our minds. This is where the experience of God and Oneness resides. Now we can have a respite from this world if only for an instant, as a result of a moment of deliverance from the seeming demands of the tyrant within.
Love and blessings, Sarah
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PAUSED FOR WEEKEND
A Course in Miracles
TEXT
Chapter Eighteen
The Dream and the Reality
Voice and Music by Martin Weber, CIMS SonShip Radio
VIII. You Need Do Nothing
63 You still have too much faith in the body as a source of strength. What plans do you make that do not involve its comfort or protection or enjoyment in some way? This makes it an end and not a means in your interpretation, and this always means you still find sin attractive. No one accepts Atonement for himself who still accepts sin as his goal. You have thus not met your
one responsibility. Atonement is not welcomed by those who prefer pain and destruction.
64 You have made much progress and are really trying to make still more, but there is one thing you have never done-not for one instant have you utterly forgotten the body. It has faded at times from your sight, but it has not yet completely disappeared. You are not asked to let this happen for more than an instant, yet it is in this instant that the miracle of Atonement happens. Afterwards, you will see the body again, but never quite the same. And every instant that you spend without awareness of it gives you a different view of it when you return.
65 At no single instant does the body exist at all. It is always remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just
now. Only its past and future make it seem real. Time controls it entirely, for sin is never present. In any single instant, the attraction of guilt would be experienced as pain and nothing else and would be avoided. It has no attraction
now. Its whole attraction is imaginary and therefore must be thought of in the past or in the future.
66 It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless just for an instant you are willing to see
no past or future. You cannot prepare for it without placing it in the future. Release is given you the instant you desire it. Many have spent a lifetime in preparation and have indeed achieved their instants of success. This course does not attempt to teach more than they learned in time, but it does aim at
saving time. You are attempting to follow a very long road to the goal you have accepted. It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement by fighting against sin. [Enormous effort is expended in the attempt to make holy what is hated and despised.] Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy.
67 Your way will be different, not in purpose but in means. A holy relationship is a means of
saving time. One instant spent together restores the universe to both of you. You
are prepared. Now you need but to remember you need do nothing. It would be far more profitable now merely to concentrate on this than to consider what you should do. When peace comes at last to those who wrestle with temptation and fight against the giving in to sin; when the light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally achieved by anyone, it
always comes with just one happy realization: "I need do nothing."
68 Here is the ultimate release which everyone will one day find in his own way, at his own time. We do not need this time. Time has been saved for you because you are together. This is the special means this course is using to save you time. You are not making use of the course if you insist on using means which have served others well, neglecting what was made for
you. Save time for me by only this one preparation and practice, doing nothing else. "I need do nothing" is a statement of allegiance, a truly undivided loyalty. Believe it for just one instant, and you will accomplish more than is given to a century of contemplation or of struggle against temptation.
69 To
do anything involves the body. And if you recognize you need do nothing, you have withdrawn the body's value from your mind. Here is the quick and open door through which you slip past centuries of effort and escape from time. This is the way in which sin loses all attraction right now. For here is time denied and past and future gone. Who need do nothing has no need for time. To do nothing is to rest and make a place within you where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. Into this place the Holy Spirit comes and there abides. He will remain when you forget and the body's activities return to occupy your conscious mind.
70 Yet there will always be this place of rest to which you can return. And you will be more aware of this quiet center of the storm than all its raging activity. 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. For from this center will you be directed how to use the body sinlessly. It is this center, from which the body is absent, that will keep it so in your awareness of it.
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