Lesson 149 ~ Review IV
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Truth is True
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
  CH 13 "FROM PERCEPTION TO KNOWLEDGE"
VII. THE HAPPY LEARNER
     
58 The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real,
    and everything beside it is not there. Let Me make the one 
    distinction for you which you cannot make but need to learn. 
    Your faith in nothing is deceiving you. Offer your faith to Me, 
    and I will place it gently in the holy place where it belongs. 
    You will find no deception there but only the simple truth. 
    And you will love it because you will understand it.
 
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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  149 ~ REVIEW IV
  [Review Lesson 137 and Lesson 138]

<
AUDIO>

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* IAMBIC PENTAMETER BEGINS*


My mind holds only what I think with God.
 
  
   [137] "When I am healed, I am not healed alone."
 
   [138] "Heaven is the decision I must make."  
 
     

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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 
ACIM Edmonton, CA
LESSON 149
Review IV ~ Lesson 137 and Lesson 138
 
Sarah's Commentary:

[137] When I am healed, I am not healed alone.
[138] Heaven is the decision I must make.
 
When I am entertaining thoughts of worry, anxiety, anger, grievances, annoyance, irritation, impatience, control, bitterness, helplessness, any kind of distress, or, in fact, an expectation or fantasy of any kind, I can choose to change my mind and choose the peace of Heaven instead. It is so easy just to say that I am in a bad mood, or that I am having a difficult day, and allow my mind free rein to stay in that state. It is helpful to ask, "Who is the 'I' that is in a bad mood?" When we identify with the "I," which is the small self, we believe this is our identity. When we withdraw belief from this false self, we can simply be the witness of this state. When we witness our condition without judgment or condemnation of any kind, then with the Holy Spirit the mind shifts. That is what the miracle does. It is a change of mind. The Holy Spirit replaces the problem with the answer. That is why there is no order of difficulty in miracles. That is the simplicity of salvation, as our part is only about the willingness to change our minds from wrong-minded to right-minded perspective. When we witness our state through the eyes of Jesus or Holy Spirit from outside this dream, we are seeing it for what it is-nothing.
 
It need not wait on time but can happen in an instant. If it takes longer, so be it.
" Now you must learn that only infinite patience produces immediate effects. This is the way in which time is exchanged for eternity. Infinite patience calls upon infinite love, and by producing results now it renders time unnecessary. We have repeatedly said that time is a learning device to be abolished when it is no longer useful. The Holy Spirit, Who speaks for God in time, also knows that time is meaningless. He reminds you of this in every passing moment of time, because it is His special function to return you to eternity and remain to bless your creations there. He is the only blessing you can truly give, because He is truly blessed. Because He has been given you freely by God, you must give Him as you received Him. " (T.5.VI.12) (ACIM OE T.5.VIII.81)
 
Choosing happiness, choosing Heaven, and choosing joy and peace takes a kind of discipline we don't always feel like exercising. We let the ego run rampant, and then we justify and rationalize why we feel the way we do. To make a choice for Heaven is to be willing to have the blocks to love removed with the help of the Holy Spirit. These blocks keep us from the awareness of the love we are. When we stubbornly resist the healing work, we are then closing the door to Heaven. There is a beautiful painting where Jesus is knocking on a closed door with no handle on his side of the door. The handle is on the inside and must be opened by us. It is up to us whether we open the door to let him in. We will do so when we are ready. It is our decision. We have been given free will and thus the power and the freedom to choose. Jesus will never impose his will on us. When we are ready to choose to save ourselves is our own decision, as there is no savior outside our own minds. The power of the Holy Spirit, given us at the moment of separation, is in our right minds.
 
Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, can't bypass our choice, as this would only serve to undermine the power of our minds and our will to decide when we will allow Heaven in. As we become willing to release our blocks to God's Love, we welcome the power within us, more and more. Our will is as powerful as God's because He created us. We have all His attributes, but we are also reminded that our pain threshold is not without limit. Because of this, He can be certain the day will come when we will choose the path back home to the Christ Self. While our tolerance for pain may be extensive, it is not without limit.
 
We don't have to wait for pain to become intolerable in order to make a decision for Heaven. When we are highly motivated to heal our minds and choose the miracle instead of the grievance in each moment, peace and joy will prevail. Each time we apply the Lesson, our motivation for peace and for Heaven is increased. We can change our minds at any time and recognize peace can be available to us right now in this very moment. As we connect our minds to Heaven, we will also connect to each other because as today's Lesson reminds us, "When I am healed, I am not healed alone." (W.137) There is no other. "As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself." (T.8.III.4.2-5) (ACIM OE T.8.IV.19) Healing overturns the laws of sickness, showing us their unreality. These laws, which we believe have power, must not be real when we see how easily they are overturned. Healing cancels out the dream of sickness and demonstrates that we are all one.
 
Healing is all about deciding and choosing and being willing. What holds us back? What are we afraid of? We think we can protect and defend ourselves from being too transparent and vulnerable. We think by staying angry, by being right, and by holding onto our perspectives and our opinions, we will maintain our independence and our autonomy and remain safe. We hold beliefs that keep us in hell. We may believe people are judging us, or the world is unsafe. We think we know what is best for ourselves and that other people can hurt us. We believe we can be rejected and that someone in our lives should be different than they are so our needs can be met. We believe the body should be healthy, and we can't do anything right, and on and on it goes. Each of these beliefs, and many others, brings suffering. We hold them because they keep us invested in the belief that we are who we say we are.
 
It is in our humility that we are strong. Our strength is our willingness to recognize we are wrong about all our perceptions and the beliefs we hold. It is in letting go of what we think we know, allowing life to live us, that we become channels of His Love. When we surrender to the love surrounding us and upholding us and we plug into our true source of power, ordinary life becomes extraordinary and divine. If we could choose Heaven at any moment and don't, we need to ask ourselves, "What is stopping me in this moment? What is my payoff in holding onto my story and my perspective with regard to any situation?" There is always a payoff for maintaining our idea of control. The payoff is that we keep our identity intact. What we don't realize is that this is how we maintain our suffering.
 
We get to be right about the way we have set things up, and this makes God wrong. We make a case that the world is the cause for how we feel, so we assume the role of the victim of the world we see. This means someone outside our own minds is responsible for our condition. It makes them guilty and then we justify our attacks on them. We don't do anything without some kind of "juice" or payoff. Even pain has a payoff because someone must pay. By our suffering, we show our brother how guilty he is. We demonstrate that they have sinned by showing them our injured self. Examining our ego programming is not always fun but always worthwhile if we are committed to our healing. It is the only way to Heaven. We can't go around our own fear but must go through the darkness to the light. Fortunately for us, it shows itself to us daily every time we are triggered by anyone or any situation outside ourselves.
 
Under all this is the unconscious belief in sin and the belief that we will be punished with hell. We spend our lives running from this belief by focusing on distractions and refusing to look at our fears. We pursue the good life in the belief that we can carve out some kind of pleasure in the face of impending aging, dying, and spending an eternity in hell. This is apparently what we are running from with our pursuit of happiness, as we define it in the world. This unconscious belief in death and our fear of waking up to the god of the ego, which we have made, must be brought to light to see it has no validity. The god that the ego has projected is a vengeful god. It is a projected image of our own ego. Now, Jesus tells us we insist that God take on our definition of Him. Yet he also tells us God is only love and nothing else. There is only Heaven, and this is the only choice to be made. Our guilt is released through forgiveness by watching our unforgiving thoughts and being willing to turn them over to the Holy Spirit. When we do, we will experience the truth of our being, which has never sinned and is eternally pure and innocent as created by our loving Father, Who only wants us to know what we really are.
 
We continue our practice as before, beginning and ending the day devoted to the preparation of our minds to learn what each idea can offer us in freedom and in peace. Let us commit today to raise every belief we hold to doubt. We open our minds and clear them of all thoughts that would deceive. We continue with the hourly remembrance, and whenever we feel triggered by anything today, we apply the Lesson.

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

VII. The Happy Learner                    
 
54 The Holy Spirit needs a happy learner in whom His mission can be happily accomplished. You who are steadfastly devoted to misery must first recognize that you are miserable and not happy. The Holy Spirit cannot teach without this contrast, for you believe that misery is happiness. This has so confused you that you have undertaken to learn to do what you can never do, believing that unless you learn it, you will not be happy. You do not realize that the foundation on which this most peculiar learning goal depends means absolutely nothing. It does make sense to you.
 
55 Have faith in nothing, and you will find the "treasure" that you sought. Yet you will add another burden to your mind, already burdened or you would not have sought another. You will believe that nothing is of value and will value it. A little piece of glass, a speck of dust, a body or a war are one to you. For if you value one thing made of nothing, you have believed that nothing can be precious and that you can learn how to make the untrue true.
 
56 The Holy Spirit, seeing where you are but knowing you are elsewhere, begins His lesson in simplicity with the fundamental teaching that truth is true. This is the hardest lesson you will ever learn, and in the end the only one. Simplicity is very difficult for twisted minds. Consider all the distortions you have made of nothing-all the strange forms and feelings and actions and reactions that you have woven out of it. Nothing is so alien to you as the simple truth, and nothing are you less inclined to listen to. The contrast between what is true and what is not is perfectly apparent, yet you do not see it.
 
57 The simple and the obvious are not apparent to those who would make palaces and royal robes of nothing, believing they are kings with golden crowns because of them. All this the Holy Spirit sees and teaches simply that all this is not true. To these unhappy learners who would teach themselves nothing and delude themselves into believing that it is not nothing, the Holy Spirit says, with steadfast quietness:
 
58 The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real,
    and everything beside it is not there. Let Me make the one 
    distinction for you which you cannot make but need to learn. 
    Your faith in nothing is deceiving you. Offer your faith to Me, 
    and I will place it gently in the holy place where it belongs. 
    You will find no deception there but only the simple truth. 
    And you will love it because you will understand it.
 
59 Like you, the Holy Spirit did not make truth. Like God, He knows it to be true. He brings the light of truth into the darkness and lets it shine on you. And as it shines, your brothers see it, and realizing that this light is not what you have made, they see in you more than you see. They will be happy learners of the lesson which this light brings to them because it teaches them release from nothing and from all the works of nothing. The heavy chains which seem to bind them unto despair they do not see as nothing until you bring the light to them. And then they see the chains have disappeared, and so they must have been nothing. And you will see it with them. Because you taught them gladness and release, they will become your teachers in release and gladness.
 
60 When you teach anyone that truth is true, you learn it with him. And so you learn that what seemed hardest was the easiest. Learn to be happy learners. You will never learn how to make nothing everything. Yet see that this has been your goal and recognize how foolish it has been. Be glad it is undone, for when you look at it in simple honesty, it is undone. We said before, "Be not content with nothing," for you have believed that nothing could content you. It is not so.
 
61 If you would be a happy learner, you must give everything that you have learned over to the Holy Spirit to be unlearned for you. And then begin to learn the joyous lessons that come quickly on the firm foundation that truth is true. For what is builded there is true and built on truth. The universe of learning will open up before you in all its gracious simplicity. With truth before you, you will not look back.
 
62 The happy learner meets the conditions of learning here, as he also meets the conditions of knowledge in the Kingdom. All this lies in the Holy Spirit's plan to free you from the past and open up the way to freedom for you. For truth is true. What else could ever be or ever was? This simple lesson holds the key to the dark door which you believe is locked forever. You made this door of nothing and behind it is nothing. The key is only the light which shines away the shapes and forms and fears of nothing. Accept this key to freedom from the hands of Christ Who gives it to you that you may join Him in the holy task of bringing light to darkness. For, like your brothers, you do not realize the light has come and freed you from the sleep of darkness.
 
63 Behold your brothers in their freedom and learn of them how to be free of darkness. The light in you will waken them, and they will not leave you asleep. The vision of Christ is given the very instant that it is perceived. Where everything is clear, it is all holy. The quietness of its simplicity is so compelling that you will realize it is impossible to deny the simple truth. For there is nothing else. God is everywhere, and His Son is in Him with everything. Can he sing the dirge of sorrow when this is true?
       
 
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