Lesson 171
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
  CH 15 "THE PURPOSE OF TIME" 
IX. THE HOLY INSTANT AND REAL RELATIONSHIPS
      
87 Real relationships have no limits, having been established by God. In the holy instant, where the Great Rays replace the body in awareness, the recognition of relationships without limits is given you. But to see this, it is necessary to give up every use the ego has for the body and to accept the fact that the ego has no purpose you would share with it. For the ego would limit everyone to a body for its purposes, and while you think it has a purpose, you will choose to utilize the means by which it tries to turn its purpose into accomplishment. This will never be accomplished. Yet you have surely recognized that the ego, whose goals are altogether unattainable, will strive for them with all its might and will do so with the strength which you have given it.  
         
              ON LINE: ACIM.OE.TX.CH 15.IX         AUDIO: TEXT CH 15, IX    
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I ~ REVIEW V
INTRODUCTION
Part I Review V
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Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio

*IAMBIC PENTAMETER*
WHAT IS IAMBIC PENTAMETER? 
 
   Now we review again. This time we are
   ready to give more effort and more time
   to what we undertake. We recognize
   we are preparing for another phase
   of understanding. We would take this step
   completely that we may go on again
   more certain, more sincere, with faith upheld
   more surely. Our footsteps have not been
   unwavering, and doubts have made us walk
   uncertainly and slowly on the road
   this course sets forth. But now we hasten on,
   for we approach a greater certainty,
   a firmer purpose and a surer goal.
 
   " Steady our feet, our Father; let our doubts   
   be quiet and our holy minds be still,
   and speak to us. We have no words to give
   to You. We would but listen to Your Word
   and make it ours. Lead our practicing
   as does a father lead a little child
   along a way he does not understand.
   Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe
   because his father leads the way for him.
 
   "So do we bring our practicing to You.
   And if we stumble, You will raise us up.
   If we forget the way, we count upon
   Your sure remembering. We wander off,
   but You will not forget to call us back.
   Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk
   more certainly and quickly unto You.
   And we accept the Word You offer us
   to unify our practicing as we
   review the thoughts that You have given us ."
 
   This is the thought which should precede the thoughts
   that we review. Each one but clarifies
   some aspect of this thought, or helps it be
   more meaningful, more personal and true,
   and more descriptive of the holy Self
   we share and now prepare to know again:
 
   " God is but love, and therefore so am I."
 
   This Self alone knows love. This Self alone
   is perfectly consistent in Its thoughts;
   knows Its Creator, understands Itself,
   is perfect in Its knowledge and Its love,
   and never changes from Its constant state
   of union with Its Father and Itself.
 
   And it is This that waits to meet us at
   the journey's ending. Every step we take
   brings us a little nearer. This review
   will shorten time immeasurably, if
   we keep in mind that This remains our goal,
   and as we practice it is This to which
   we are approaching. Let us raise our hearts
   from dust to life as we remember This
   is promised us, and that this course was sent
   to open up the path of light to us,
   and teach us, step by step, how to return
   to the Eternal Self we think we lost.
 
   I take the journey with you. For I share
   your doubts and fears a little while, that you
   may come to me who recognize the road
   by which all doubts and fears are overcome.
   We walk together. I must understand
   uncertainty and pain, although I know
   they have no meaning. Yet a Saviour must
   remain with those he teaches, seeing what
   they see, but still retaining in his mind
   the way which led him out, and now will lead
   you out with him. God's Son is crucified
   until you walk along the road with me.
 
   My resurrection comes again each time
   I lead a brother safely to the place
   at which the journey ends and is forgot.
   I am renewed each time a brother learns
   there is a way from misery and pain.
   I am reborn each time a brother's mind
   turns to the light in him and looks for me.
   I have forgotten no-one. Help me now
   to lead you back to where your journey was
   begun, and make another choice with me.
 
   Release me as you practice once again
   the thoughts I brought to you from Him Who sees
   your bitter need, and knows the answer God
   has given Him. Together we review
   these thoughts. Together we devote our time
   and effort to them. And together we
   will teach them to our brothers. God would not
   have Heaven incomplete. It waits for you,
   as I do. I am incomplete without
   your part in me. And as I am made whole,
   we go together to our ancient home,
   prepared for us before time was and kept
   unchanged by time, immaculate and safe,
   as it will be at last, when time is done.
 
   Let this review be then your gift to me.
   For this alone I need; that you will hear
   the words I speak, and give them to the world.
   You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands,
   through which I save the world. The Self from Which
   I call to you is but your Own. To Him
   we go together. Take your brother's hand,
   for this is not a way we walk alone.
   In him I walk with you and you with me.
   Our Father wills His Son be One with Him.
   What lives but must not then be one with you?
 
   Let this review become a time in which
   we share a new experience for you,
   yet one as old as time and older still.
   Hallowed your name. Your glory undefiled
   forever. And your wholeness now complete,
   as God established it. You are His Son,
   completing His extension in your own.
   We practice but an ancient truth we knew
   before illusion seemed to claim the world.
   And we remind the world that it is free
   of all illusion every time we say,
 
   " God is but love, and therefore so am I."

   With this we start each day of our review.
   With this we start and end each period
   of practice time. And with this thought we sleep,
   to waken once again with these same words
   upon our tongue to greet another day.
   No thought that we review but we surround
   with it, and use the thoughts to hold it up
   before our minds and keep it clear in our
   remembrance throughout the day. And thus
   when we have finished this review, we will
   have recognized the words we speak are true.
 
   Yet are the words but aids, and to be used,
   except at the beginning and the end
   of practice periods, but to recall
   the mind, as needed, to its purpose. We
   place faith in the experience that comes
   from practice, not the means we use. We wait
   for the experience, and recognize
   that it is only here conviction lies.
   We use the words, and try and try again
   to go beyond them to their meaning, which
   is far beyond their sound. The sound grows dim
   and disappears, as we approach the Source
   of meaning. It is here that we find rest.
 
        ~ The Original Handscript Notes
   

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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
DAILY LESSONS
SonShip Workbook
L e s s o n  171 ~ Review V
[Lesson 151 and Lesson 152]  

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God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
    
   [151] All things are echoes of the Voice of God.   
  
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
 
   [152] The power of decision is my own.      
 
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.


                            ~ The Original Handscript Notes
   

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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 
ACIM Edmonton, CA
LESSON 171
Review V  ~ Lesson 151 and Lesson 152 
 
  Sarah's Commentary

[151] All things are echoes of the Voice of God.
[152] The power of decision is my own.
 
The Reviews don't give us much now except the introduction and a few lines each day; so, it is important to look at what Jesus is instructing us to do in this Review. He starts by urging us to now give more effort and more time to the Lessons. He wants us to take this seriously, since maintaining the ego has cost us our happiness.
 
In our practice instructions laid out in Lesson 153, we were asked to give at least five minutes. "Ten would be better; fifteen better still." (W.153.15.4) Jesus is aware that "Our footsteps have not been unwavering, and doubts have made us walk uncertainly and slowly on the road this course sets forth." (W.RV.1.5) I would guess this is the truth for many of us who have a hard time committing to regular and consistent practice. Now he is inviting us to give more effort and more time to prepare for "another phase of understanding." (W.RV.1.3) He wants us to firm up our purpose and set the goal with more certainty. He wants it for us because he knows that this is where our happiness lies. We are being prepared for Part II of the Workbook so we can move forward with a stronger purpose and more dedication and sincerity.
 
Jesus is aware of how invested we are in the ego thought system, but he is also aware of just how miserable it makes us. That is why he is encouraging us to give more effort and more time to our practice. We are taking another step forward on our journey, so he is encouraging us to be as steadfast as we can in our learning.
 
This prayer that we say to God is the acknowledgment that we still have doubts and distractions. We ask with humility to "Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still" (W.RV.2.2) so we can hear Him speak to us. The important thing about this prayer is the humility to see that we are like little children, following along where we are led, recognizing that we don't know, so we need help and guidance. Jesus knows that we will stumble and forget and choose the ego, but we will be raised up and called back. We don't need to feel guilty when we stumble and temporarily lose our way. We need only remember that we will have help when we wander off and will be constantly called back.
 
The prayer contains such a beautiful and poignant passage. It carries an image of a father holding the hand of his child while the child does not know where the father will take him but knows he is safe. "And if we stumble, You will raise us up." (W.RV.3.2) What a comforting thought! We are safe and protected and can lean on our Father's sure support in our practicing. It is such a beautiful prayer and takes us beyond words into a loving relationship with our Father, which is the intent now. The words are not important. They just point us to the truth. We need to really connect with the deep meaning behind the words if we are to enter an experience of the Self. "This Self alone knows Love. This Self alone is perfectly consistent in Its Thoughts; knows Its Creator, understands Itself, is perfect in Its knowledge and Its Love, and never changes from Its constant state of union with Its Father and Itself. (W.RV.4.4-5) "And it is this that waits to meet us at the journey's ending." (W.RV.5.1) We connect with this Self when we experience moments of total Oneness in our meditation, which is the foretaste of Heaven that the Course talks about.
 
Jesus gave us a personal and direct message, telling us: "I take the journey with you. For I share your doubts and fears a little while, that you may come to me who recognize the road by which all fears and doubts are overcome." (W.RV.6.1-2) Jesus is a symbol of the love in our minds. We can call on his help because we cannot heal the mind without him. It is not up to us to fix ourselves but to wake up to who we are, and we do so with his help. We need this help because the ego will never undo itself.
 
The reality is that we are in a state of doubt and fear because of our choice for the ego. We must be willing to look at the choice that we are making in each moment---for Heaven or for hell. Where we made a faulty choice before, we can make a better one now. "Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you." (T.31.VIII.3.1) (ACIM OE T.31.VIII.87)
 
When fear thoughts show up, look at them and be willing to let Jesus help you see their unreality. He is not part of the dream. He is in the right mind where we can look at the dream with him from above the battleground; or we can sit next to him in the movie theater and watch the dream like a movie being played out on the screen. He can help us to see the movie of our lives and to see that it is all a dream. He shows us the unreality of the fearful thoughts in our wrong mind and helps us to recognize that we are not the character on the screen but the observer of the play.
 
Through the choice we make for forgiveness with Jesus as our guide, we return to the Self as the One Son---One with Jesus and with all brothers---so we can learn there is no separation and there are no separate interests. We have descended down the ladder from a very lofty place, and now we must ascend step-by-step back to where the journey began. We need to do our part in this process. That is why Jesus is asking us, "Help me now to lead you back to where the journey was begun, to make another choice with me." (W.RV.7.5) With his help, we are now retracing our steps back to our original decision; so, where we made a faulty choice before, we can now choose again.
 
Jesus keeps encouraging us by helping us to see how unhappy and miserable we are and how bitter is our need. He is not cajoling us to apply these Lessons for any reason other than for our own completion and release. He only wants our happiness. Do we want it for ourselves as much as he wants it for us? Are we prepared to acknowledge that this is the only way out of our misery? I know how much I have tried to make myself better by working on fixing myself, but I know that my underlying anxiety cannot be healed with illusory fixes. We cannot do this alone because, as the Lesson said yesterday, when we try to do it alone, we are turning to fear (the ego) and looking to it for relief and support. Thus, we give love's attributes to fear, looking for safety where there is none. In fact, this is the way that fear is kept.
 
Now he asks that we let him use our voice, our eyes, our feet, and our hands so he can work through us for the benefit of all the world. He needs our body to help others see that, through our demonstration, they can make the same choice we have made. Thus, the body can serve a holy purpose, not through preaching but by demonstrating that there is no separation, and no one is excluded from our love.
 
Today, we notice each time we are tempted to give the illusion primacy in our lives by making decisions by ourselves. We choose instead the thoughts he gives us to help us to remember the truth about ourselves. He is asking us to keep these thoughts uppermost in our minds throughout the day. We will still attend to what we need to do in the day, but now the attention is on our thoughts. When we set the intention in the morning and do our practice with sincerity and focus, we can have a day of peace.
 
"Yet are the words but aids, and to be used, except at the beginning and the end of practice periods, but to recall the mind, as needed, to its purpose." (W.RV.12.1) We use the words as the means to point us to the truth and to ". . . recall the mind, as needed to its purpose." (W.RV.12.1) Our faith is not in the words but in the decision to choose again and be led to the experience of healing. The content is always what is important and not the form. We are choosing the content of love or guilt. The situations and relationships of this world provide us with the perfect classroom where we can take the faulty choices of the past and now make a new choice to heal our misperceptions.
 
Throughout these Review Lessons, we open to the truth with the central idea: "God is but Love, and therefore so am I." (W.RV.4.3) We need this constant practice simply because we don't believe that we have all the attributes of God. We have thoroughly taught ourselves that we are egos, living in this material world.
 
We are created in the image of God, which is pure love and is, therefore, what we are as well. We are not our personalities because we have lots of evidence that they are not pure love. The personality, and self-concept, that we identify with in the world is not what we are and is not real. What is real is our true Self, which is still in the mind of God. Our dedication to practice will bring us to an experience of this Self.
 
We take this unifying idea and really work with it in our practice and in our meditation time for the next ten days. We remind ourselves daily, "God is but Love, and therefore so am I." (W.RV.4.3) For the Lesson today, we review again, "All things are echoes of the Voice for God." (W.151) Our judgments are based on ignorance and doubt, and thus our certainty is just a cloak for uncertainty. With this Lesson, we learn that we must doubt the evidence that our senses show us in the world and let the Holy Spirit be the judge of what is worthy for us to take in. He is the purifier of our thoughts.
 
The thought, "The power of decision is my own," (W.152) reminds us of the fact that we have chosen everything that seems to happen to us. Our mind is where our power is and where our salvation (healing) lies. Since God created you, you must remain unchangeable. So, by definition, all transitory states are false.
 
These two ideas in the Review Lesson today are bound by the truth that God is Love and therefore so are we. And yet, what is this Self we are trying to experience? "This Self alone is perfectly consistent in Its thoughts; knows Its Creator, understands Itself, is perfect in Its knowledge and Its love, and never changes from Its constant state of union with Its Father and Itself." (W.RV.4.5)
 
If I truly want to know that I am love, I will recognize that every circumstance, every event, every problem, and everything that appears to be happening in my life is for my benefit. No, this will not make my ego happy, but that is no longer my goal. Behind everything that I seem to be experiencing is the Love of God and the echo of His Voice, singing a love song and calling me to my Self, my Home, and my Reality.
 
If I am love, all that I need to do is bring the thoughts that block my awareness of this love to the Holy Spirit. If I refuse to do that, I am making a choice to stay in hell by holding onto my perspectives. With a willingness to change my mind, the miracle is made available. What seems to take time is how long it takes to get to this willingness. "The power of decision is my own." (W.152)

On behalf of our happiness, let us really take in the words today and make this practice a gift to God, which is a gift to the Self that we are. Let us commit to feeling the essence of these Lessons. Let us wake with them, go to sleep with them, and keep them with us all day, no matter how raucous the shrieks of the ego may become. We affirm that there is only one truth and that truth is---we are infinite love.

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

The Purpose of Time

   Voice and Music by Martin Weber, CIMS SonShip Radio

IX. The Holy Instant and Real Relationships 
      
79 The holy instant does not replace the need for learning, for the Holy Spirit must not leave you as your Teacher until the holy instant has extended far beyond time. For a teaching assignment such as His, He must use everything in this world for your release. He must side with every sign or token of your willingness to learn of Him what the truth must be. He is swift to utilize whatever you offer Him on behalf of this. His concern and care for you are limitless. In the face of your fear of forgiveness, which He perceives as clearly as He knows forgiveness is release, He will teach you to remember that forgiveness is not loss but your salvation. And that in complete forgiveness, in which you recognize that there is nothing to forgive, you are absolved completely.
 
80 Hear Him gladly and learn of Him that you have need of no special relationships at all. You but seek in them what you have thrown away. And through them you will never learn the value of what you have cast aside but what you still desire with all your hearts. Let us join together in making the holy instant all that there is by desiring that it be all that there is. God's Son has such great need of your willingness to strive for this that you cannot conceive of need so great. Behold the only need that God and His Son share and will to meet together. You are not alone in this. The will of your creations call to you to share your will with them. Turn, then, in peace from guilt to God and them.
 
81 Relate only with what will never leave you and what you can never leave. The loneliness of God's Son is the loneliness of his Father. Refuse not the awareness of your completion and seek not to restore it to yourselves. Fear not to give redemption over to your Redeemer's love. He will not fail you, for He comes from One Who cannot fail. Accept your sense of failure as nothing more than a mistake in who you are. For the holy host of God is beyond failure, and nothing that he wills can be denied. You are forever in a relationship so holy that it calls to everyone to escape from loneliness and join you in your love. And where you are must everyone seek and find you there.
 
82 Think but an instant on this: God gave the Sonship to you to ensure your perfect creation. This was His gift, for as He withheld Himself not from you, He withheld not His creation. Nothing that ever was created but is yours. Your relationships are with the universe. And this universe, being of God, is far beyond the petty sum of all the separate bodies you perceive. For all its parts are joined in God through Christ, where they become like to their Father. For Christ knows of no separation from His Father, Who is His one relationship, in which He gives as His Father gives to Him.
 
83 The Holy Spirit is God's attempt to free you of what He does not understand. And because of the Source of the attempt, it will succeed. The Holy Spirit asks you to respond as God does, for He would teach you what you do not understand. God would respond to every need, whatever form it takes. And so He has kept this channel open to receive His communication to you and yours to Him. God does not understand your problem in communication, for He does not share it with you. It is only you who believe that it is understandable.
 
84 The Holy Spirit knows that it is not understandable, and yet He understands it because you have made it. In Him alone lies the awareness of what God cannot know and what you do not understand. It is His holy function to accept them both, and by removing every element of disagreement, to join them into one. He will do this because it is His function. Leave, then, what seems to you to be impossible to Him Who knows it must be possible because it is the Will of God. And let Him Whose teaching is only of God teach you the only meaning of relationships. For God created the only relationship which has meaning, and that is His relationship with you.
 
85 As the ego would limit your perception of your brothers to the body, so would the Holy Spirit release your vision and let you see the Great Rays shining from them, so unlimited that they reach to God. It is this shift in vision which is accomplished in the holy instant. Yet it is needful for you to learn just what this shift entails, so you will become willing to make it permanent. Given this willingness, it will not leave you, for it is permanent. For once you have accepted it as the only perception you want, it is translated into knowledge by the part which God Himself plays in the Atonement, for it is the only step in it He understands. Therefore, in this there will be no delay when you are ready for it. God is ready now, but you are not.
 
86 Our task is but to continue as fast as possible the necessary process of looking straight at all the interference and seeing it exactly as it is. For it is impossible to recognize as wholly without gratification what you think you want. The body is the symbol of the ego, as the ego is the symbol of the separation. And both are nothing more than attempts to limit communication and thereby to make it impossible. For communication must be unlimited in order to have meaning, and deprived of meaning, it will not satisfy you completely. Yet it remains the only means by which you can establish real relationships.
 
87 Real relationships have no limits, having been established by God. In the holy instant, where the Great Rays replace the body in awareness, the recognition of relationships without limits is given you. But to see this, it is necessary to give up every use the ego has for the body and to accept the fact that the ego has no purpose you would share with it. For the ego would limit everyone to a body for its purposes, and while you think it has a purpose, you will choose to utilize the means by which it tries to turn its purpose into accomplishment. This will never be accomplished. Yet you have surely recognized that the ego, whose goals are altogether unattainable, will strive for them with all its might and will do so with the strength which you have given it.
 
88 It is impossible to divide your strength between Heaven and hell, God and the ego, and release your power unto creation, which is the only purpose for which it was given you. Love would always give increase. Limits are demanded by the ego, representing its demands to make little and ineffectual. Limit your vision of a brother to his body, which you will do as long as you would not release him from it, and you have denied his gift to you. His body cannot give it. And seek it not through yours. Yet your minds are already continuous, and their union need only be accepted, and the loneliness in Heaven is gone.
 
89 If you would but let the Holy Spirit tell you of the love of God for you and the need your creations have to be with you forever, you would experience the attraction of the eternal. No one can hear Him speak of this and long remain willing to linger here. For it is your will to be in Heaven, where you are complete and quiet in such sure and loving relationships that any limit is impossible. Would you not exchange your little relationships for this? For the body is little and limited, and only those whom you would see without the limits the ego would impose on them can offer you the gift of freedom.
 
90 You have no conception of the limits you have placed on your perception and no idea of all the loveliness that you could see. But this you must remember-the attraction of guilt opposes the attraction of God. His attraction for you remains unlimited, but because your power, being His, is as great as His, you can turn away from love. What you invest in guilt, you withdraw from God. And your sight grows weak and dim and limited, for you have attempted to separate the Father from the Son and limit their communication. Seek not Atonement in further separation. And limit not your vision of God's Son to what interferes with his release and what the Holy Spirit must undo to set him free. For his belief in limits has imprisoned him.
 
91 When the body ceases to attract you and when you place no value on it as a means for getting anything, then there will be no interference in communication, and your thoughts will be as free as God's. As you let the Holy Spirit teach you how to use the body only for purposes of communication and renounce its use for separation and attack which the ego sees in it, you will learn you have no need of a body at all. In the holy instant there are no bodies, and you experience only the attraction of God. Accepting it as undivided, you join Him wholly in an instant. [For you would place no limits on your union with Him.] The reality of this relationship becomes the only truth that you could ever want. All truth is here.
   
    ~ The Original Handscript Notes

 
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