Lesson 145 ~ Review IV
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Heaven is Guaranteed
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   A COURSE IN MIRACLES
  CH 13 "FROM PERCEPTION TO KNOWLEDGE"
V. THE GUARANTEE OF HEAVEN
     
37 When we are all united in Heaven, you will value nothing that you value here. For nothing that you value here you value wholly, and so you do not value it at all. Value is where God placed it, and the value of what God esteems cannot be judged, for it has been established. It is wholly of value. It can merely be appreciated or not. To value it partially is not to know its value. In Heaven is everything God valued and nothing else. Heaven is perfectly unambiguous. Everything is clear and bright and calls forth one response. There is no darkness, and there is no contrast. There is no variation. There is no interruption. There is a sense of peace so deep that no dream in this world has ever brought even a dim imagining of what it is.     
 
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I ~ REVIEW IV
INTRODUCTION
ACIM Review IV 
<AUDIO><VIDEO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
  
* IAMBIC PENTAMETER BEGINS*
   
   Now we review again, this time aware
   we are preparing for the second part
   of learning how the truth can be applied.
   Today we will begin to concentrate
   on readiness for what will follow next.
   Such is our aim for this review and for
   the lessons following. Thus we review
   the recent lessons and their central thoughts
   in such a way as will facilitate
   the readiness which we would now achieve.|
 
   There is a central theme which unifies
   each step in the review we undertake.
   It can be simply stated in these words:
 
   " My mind holds only what I think with God."
 
   This is a fact. And represents the truth
   of What you are and What your Father is.
   It is this Thought by Which the Father gave
   creation to the Son, establishing
   the Son as co-creator with Himself.
   It is this Thought Which fully guarantees
   salvation to the Son. For in his mind
   no thoughts can dwell but those his Father shares.
   Lack of forgiveness blocks this Thought from his
   awareness. Yet It is forever true.|
 
   Let us begin our preparation with
   some understanding of the many forms
   in which the lack of true forgiveness may
   be carefully concealed. Because they are
   illusions, they are not perceived to be
   but what they are; defenses which protect
   your unforgiving thoughts from being seen
   and recognized. Their purpose is to show
   you something else, and hold correction off
   through self-deception made to take its place.|
 
   And yet your mind holds only what you think
   with God. Your self-deceptions cannot take
   the place of truth. No more than can a child
   who throws a stick into the ocean change
   the coming in and going out of tides,
   the warming of the water by the sun,
   the silver of the moon on it by night.
   So do we start each practice period
   in this review with readying our mind
   to understand the lessons that we read
   and see the meaning which they offer us.|
 
   Begin each day with time devoted to
   the preparation of your mind to learn
   what each idea you will review that day
   can offer you in freedom and in peace.
   Open your mind and clear it of all thoughts
   that would deceive, and let this Thought alone
   engage it fully and remove the rest:
 
   " My mind holds only what I think with God."
 
   Five minutes with this Thought will be enough
   to set the day along the lines which God
   appointed, and to place His Mind in charge
   of all the thoughts you will receive that day.|
   They will not come from you alone, for they
   will all be shared with Him. And so each one
   will bring the message of His Love to you,
   returning messages of yours to Him.
   So will communion with the Lord of Hosts
   be yours, as He Himself has willed it be.
   And as His Own completion joins with Him,
   so will He join with you who are complete
   as you unite with Him and He with you.|
 
   After your preparation, merely read
   each of the two ideas assigned to you
   to be reviewed that day. Then close your eyes
   and say them slowly to yourself. There is
   no hurry now, for you are using time
   for its intended purpose. Let each word
   shine with the meaning God has given it
   as it was given to you through His Voice.
   Let each idea that you review today
   give you the gift which He has laid in it
   for you to have of Him. And we will use
   no format for our practicing but this:|
 
   Each hour of the day, bring to your mind
   the Thought with which the day began, and spend
   a quiet moment with It. Then repeat
   the two ideas you practice for the day
   unhurriedly, with time enough to see
   the gifts which they contain for you, and let
   them be received where they were meant to be.|
   We add no other thoughts, but let them be
   the messages they are. We need no more
   than that to give us happiness and rest
   and endless quiet, perfect certainty,
   and all our Father wills that we receive
   as the inheritance we have of Him.
 
   Each day of practicing, as we review,
   we close as we began, repeating first
   the Thought that made the day a special time
   of blessing and of happiness for us;
   and through our faithfulness restored the world
   from darkness to the light, from grief to joy,
   from pain to peace, from sin to holiness.|
   God offers thanks to you who practice thus
   the keeping of His Word. And as you give
   your mind to the ideas for the day
   again before you sleep, His gratitude
   surrounds you with the peace wherein He willed
   you be forever, and are learning now
   to claim again as your inheritance.
 
   ~ Original Handscript of ACIM
  
  ACIM OE WORKBOOK LESSON REVIEW IV

CIRCLE OF ATONEMENT ~ COMMENTARY
          
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
DAILY LESSONS
SonShip Workbook
L e s s o n  145 ~ REVIEW IV
  [Review Lesson 129 and Lesson 130]

<AUDIO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio

* IAMBIC PENTAMETER BEGINS*


My mind holds only what I think with God. 
  
   [129] "Beyond this world there is a world I want."
 
   [130] "It is impossible to see two worlds."  
 
     

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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 
ACIM Edmonton, CA
LESSON 145
Review IV ~ Lesson 129 and Lesson 130
 
Sarah's Commentary:

Today, we look at the question of how much we really want the real world that is beyond this world we made? How strong is our intent? How much earnestness do we devote to the practice? Rumi says, "Come, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving, it doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times. Come, come again, come." What a reassuring message. Today is a new day. It doesn't matter what has happened in the past. No need to despair. Start this day as a new day and everything is before you and nothing is behind you. Isn't that reassuring? We can recommit to be more vigilant in our practice every day. We need not get discouraged if our practice has been inconsistent. We can just start again today.
In each moment, we are choosing. Every choice reflects the answer to these questions. We can't choose two worlds at once. "You cannot see both worlds, for each of them involves a different kind of seeing, and depends on what you cherish. The sight of one is possible because you have denied the other. Both are not true, yet either one will seem as real to you as the amount to which you hold it dear." (T.13.VII.2.2-4) (ACIM OE T.12.VII.60)
 
When you get focused on the things you think you want in this world, or when you hold grievances and react with anger instead of choosing forgiveness, you will see that "You do not really want the world you see, for it has disappointed you since time began." (T.13.VII.3.1) (ACIM OE T.12.VII.61) When you choose the ego, you recognize ". . . although you turn in sadness from it, you cannot find in it the road that leads away from it into another world." (T.13.VII.3.7)(ACIM OE T.12.VII.61) Each choice we make is for Heaven or for hell. Separation and unity are mutually exclusive states. When we choose one, the other is not in our awareness. Yet in choosing forgiveness, we experience the beauty of joining and of connection and receive a glimmer of the truth of our true magnificence as the Self we are.
 
The only way we can know ourselves as we were created, beautiful and holy, is through forgiveness. How willing are you to forgive in the face of seeming attack, anger, disagreement, perceived problems, and distress? That is where the mind training comes in. When we choose to hold onto grievances and attachments to the world, we block the love that we are from our awareness. In other words, we don't know ourselves. Our joy and happiness are covered over with our dark thoughts. In every moment, the Holy Spirit is there, shining His radiance on us, but we are actively choosing against it by holding attack thoughts. To do so is an act of self-hatred. It is a clear case of not knowing our own best interests. Although we are very familiar with this concept by now, our constant vigilance is still called for. It is still a challenge for us because of our attachment to the separate self. This is where the resistance comes in, but "Love always answers, being unable to deny a call for help, or not to hear the cries of pain that rise to it from every part of this strange world you made but do not want." (T.13.VII.4.3) (ACIM OE T.12.VII.62) It simply waits on our welcome. Our only need is to wake up to who we really are.
 
The things of this world seem so real, and the experiences we have seem so painful. We have all experienced sadness, sorrow, loss, disappointment and yes, exhilaration and pleasure. None of it lasts. Everything passes. There is no lasting love in this world of time because, by the very nature of time, all things will end, as nothing here endures forever, including our bodies. It is a world of instability and loss. A very good movie, which takes us on a journey of all things ending in loss and finally death, is called The Stone Angel. It demonstrates how there is nothing we can hold onto in this world, even though we still cling to the possibility that there is something of value here. We hold out hope that there is something we might still gain.
 
To be free of the experience of suffering, we must constantly maintain vigilance and remove the blocks to the light, so we can glimpse love's presence in our minds, more and more consistently. "Under His guidance you will travel light and journey lightly, for His sight is ever on the journey's end, which is His goal. God's Son is not a traveller through outer worlds. However holy his perception may become, no world outside himself holds his inheritance. Within himself he has no needs, for light needs nothing but to shine in peace, and from itself to let the rays extend in quiet to infinity." (T.13.VII.13.4-7) (ACIM OE T.12.VII.71) Thus, we come to know a love that endures forever and a world where hate and vengeance have no meaning.
 
This world we strive to experience is the real world. In Chapter 30, Section V, the real world is described as a state of mind we experience when we release the guilt in our minds through forgiveness. The real world takes the place of all the idols of this world. There is no more holding dear our special wants and perceived needs. It is important to ask in everything, "What is it for?" Is it for keeping us invested in the illusion or for healing the mind and awakening from the dream? It is important to question our purpose in everything we do. When the real world is experienced, there will be no desire to leave this state of mind. Chapter 17 offers us a beautiful picture of the real world, which is bright and clean and new, with everything sparkling under the open sun. "Nothing is hidden here, for everything has been forgiven and there are no fantasies to hide the truth." (T.17.II.2.3) (ACIM OE T.17.III.8) This is what is experienced in the mind when our attachment to this illusory world is released.
 
While we continue to believe that there is still something of value in this world of illusion, we will not connect with the place in us where there is this wonderful, open, and loving heart, full of kindness, totally pure, and innocent, shining in acceptance of all. When we connect with the beauty within, we radiate purity and joy, which is compelling, soft, yielding, and welcoming. Yet it is impossible to see two worlds. Until we make a total commitment to truth, we stay divided, hoping to get the best of both our illusory world and the world of spiritual gifts. In other words, we are seeking for the real world while still looking for the perceived benefits of the illusory world. We try to bring spirituality into the illusion so we can hold onto both our illusory dream and God's peace, but this is clearly impossible. We must let go of the ego, if only for an instant, in order to experience a glimpse of the truth. It is an inner shift. It is a change of mind.
 
Truth and illusion are mutually exclusive. The world is made by fear, and everything we see in it is a projection of the guilt in our minds. Jesus says that we cherish guilt, hug it close, shelter it, and look to it for ". . . its loving protection and alert defense." (Psychotherapy Pamphlet.2.VI.1.3) "Healing occurs as a patient begins to hear the dirge he sings, and questions its validity." (P.VI.1.5) We don't shun guilt but embrace it. The first obstacle to peace is the attraction to guilt: "The attraction of guilt produces fear of love, for love would never look on guilt at all." (T.19.IV.A.i.10.1) (ACIM OE T.19.V.a.49) We may wonder why we would be attracted to guilt. This attraction is our investment in our body, our personality, and our individuality. As long as we want this separate self, we will be attracted to guilt, but healing occurs as we start to listen to our thoughts, notice our judgments and our attachments, and question their validity. As Jon Marc Hammer (Jayem), author of The Way of Mastery, says in his blog, "It is a journey of reclaiming all the territory once made to keep light out, now given over completely to serving the incarnation of light. This light must be brought to every nook and cranny of life." The light is our awareness. Our part is to identify the cause of our distress, and once it is seen, we need to be willing to let it go. It will be replaced by the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, "The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not. Your images have been replaced. By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so." (W.23.5.3-6)Our part is actually very small. The Holy Spirit in our minds does all the heavy lifting.
 
As we learned early in the Course, "Nothing I see in this room means anything." (W.1) Then we go on to recognize, "I have given everything I see all in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] the meaning that it has for me." (W.2) Now we must question the meaning we have put onto everything we see. All our interpretations and understandings are false. It is a time of sorting out the false from the true and the ephemeral from the eternal. God's strength is what will help us make this choice. Our fantasy is that there is still something that the sensory world has to offer us on behalf of our happiness. This is what we need help with in order to loose the world from all we thought it was. Thus, it is our task to seek and find within ourselves the obstacles to the love we are. They are all the fearful and self-attacking thoughts. We all hold a definition of ourselves that includes our preferences and judgments, our values and beliefs, and all the concepts we hold that define us in this dream. Yet Jesus is telling us that none of these concepts define us. All they do is tell us who we are not. They constitute our false self. Thus, we are called to release them so who we truly are can shine through. It is a process of loosening ourselves from our rigid investment in the beliefs that we currently hold.

Love and blessings, Sarah
A Course in Miracles
TEXT
ACIM Original Edition
Chapter Thirteen

From Perception to Knowledge   

   Voice and Music by Martin Weber, CIMS SonShip Radio
V. The Guarantee of Heaven                  
 
37 When we are all united in Heaven, you will value nothing that you value here. For nothing that you value here you value wholly, and so you do not value it at all. Value is where God placed it, and the value of what God esteems cannot be judged, for it has been established. It is wholly of value. It can merely be appreciated or not. To value it partially is not to know its value. In Heaven is everything God valued and nothing else. Heaven is perfectly unambiguous. Everything is clear and bright and calls forth one response. There is no darkness, and there is no contrast. There is no variation. There is no interruption. There is a sense of peace so deep that no dream in this world has ever brought even a dim imagining of what it is.
 
38 Nothing in this world can give this peace, for nothing in this world is wholly shared. Perfect perception can merely show you what is capable of being wholly shared. It can also show you the results of sharing while you still remember the results of not sharing. The Holy Spirit points quietly to the contrast, knowing that you will finally let Him judge the difference for you, allowing Him to demonstrate which must be true. He has perfect faith in your final judgment because He knows that He will make it for you. To doubt this would be to doubt that His mission will be fulfilled. How is this possible, when His mission is of God?
 
39 You whose minds are darkened by doubt and guilt, remember this: God gave the Holy Spirit to you and gave Him the mission to remove all doubt and every trace of guilt that His dear Son has laid upon himself. It is impossible that this mission fail. Nothing can prevent what God would have accomplished from accomplishment. Whatever your reactions to the Holy Spirit's Voice may be, whatever voice you choose to listen to, whatever strange thoughts may occur to you, God's will is done. You will find the peace in which He has established you, because He does not change His Mind. He is invariable as the peace in which you dwell and of which the Holy Spirit reminds you.
 
40 You will not remember change and shift in Heaven. You have need of contrast only here. Contrast and differences are necessary teaching aids, for by them you learn what to avoid and what to seek. When you have learned this, you will find the answer that makes the need for any differences disappear. Truth comes of its own will unto its own. When you have learned that you belong to truth, it will flow lightly over you without a difference of any kind. For you will need no contrast to help you realize that this is what you want, and only this. Fear not the Holy Spirit will fail in what your Father has given Him to do. The Will of God can fail in nothing.
 
41 Have faith in only this one thing, and it will be sufficient: God wills you be in Heaven, and nothing can keep you from it or it from you. Your wildest misperceptions, your weird imaginings, your blackest nightmares all mean nothing. They will not prevail against the peace God wills for you. The Holy Spirit will restore your sanity, because insanity is not the Will of God. If that suffices Him, it is enough for you. You will not keep what God would have removed, because it breaks communication with you with whom He would communicate. His voice will be heard.
 
42 The Communication Link which God Himself placed within you, joining your minds with His, cannot be broken. You may believe you want it broken, and this belief does interfere with the deep peace in which the sweet and constant communication which God would share with you is known. Yet His channels of reaching out cannot be wholly closed and separated from Him. Peace will be yours, because His peace still flows to you from Him Whose Will is peace. You have it now. The Holy Spirit will teach you how to use it and, by projecting it, to learn that it is in you.
 
43 God willed you Heaven and will always will you nothing else. The Holy Spirit knows only of His Will. There is no chance that Heaven will not be yours, for God is sure, and what He wills is as sure as He is. You will learn salvation, because you will learn how to save. It will not be possible to exempt yourself from what the Holy Spirit wills to teach you. Salvation is as sure as God. His certainty suffices. Learn that even the darkest nightmare that disturbed the mind of God's sleeping Son holds no power over him. He will learn the lesson of awaking. God watches over him, and light surrounds him.
 
44 Can God's Son lose himself in dreams when God has placed within him the glad call to waken and be glad? He cannot separate himself from what is in him. His sleep will not withstand the call to wake. The mission of redemption will be fulfilled as surely as the creation will remain unchanged throughout eternity. You do not have to know that Heaven is yours to make it so. It is so. Yet the Will of God must be accepted as your will to know it.
 
45 The Holy Spirit cannot fail to undo for you everything you have learned that teaches you what is not true must be reconciled with truth. This is the reconciliation which the ego would substitute for your reconciliation unto sanity and unto peace. The Holy Spirit has a very different kind of reconciliation in His Mind for you, and one which He will effect as surely as the ego will not effect what it attempts.
 
46 Failure is of the ego, not of God. From Him you cannot wander, and there is no possibility that the plan the Holy Spirit offers to everyone for the salvation of everyone will not be perfectly accomplished. You will be released, and you will not remember anything you made that was not created for you and by you in return. For how can you remember what was never true or not remember what has always been? It is this reconciliation with truth, and only truth, in which the peace of Heaven lies.
     
 
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