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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 18 "THE DREAM AND THE REALITY"
VIII. I NEED DO NOTHING
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 And if you recognize you need do nothing, you have withdrawn the body's value from your mind.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.
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 202
<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.
[182] I will be still a moment and go home.
Why would I choose to stay an instant more
where I do not belong, when God Himself
has given me His Voice to call me home?
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 202 Review VI [182] I will be still an instant* and go home.
Sarah's Commentary:
What a beautiful focus for this day to choose stillness within. Our minds are restless when in the service of the ego, constantly searching for satisfaction in the world; but today, we are called to rest in God. It is the place within us where all is quiet, where we truly are at home, and at peace. This is a place where the world cannot enter. It is where the Holy Child can breathe pure sweet air. It is where we hear the Voice
for God calling us to our home.
This aging body is not my home. This world is not my home. I am at home in God, dreaming of exile. Thank you, Father, for your Voice---for the Call You have placed in my mind---so I can remember What I am as One with You. There is nothing in the world that can fulfill me. The moment the choice was made for the separation, Your Answer was given in that same instant. Nothing has happened. We are still at home in God, but we are dreaming of another existence. We now have the power to choose to awaken from this dream. We can choose to remember who we are as eternal beings of light and love. We can dream of separation, but we can't change who we are as we were created. We can only choose to block the truth from our awareness.
The Holy Spirit is now showing us the way home. The bridge we crossed into this world seemed to be detonated by the ego so we would not remember what we are; but, the memory of our home has not left us. It is still in the mind, instilled in us by God. It is the Call to return to the Self. Jesus helps us by clearly laying out what our decision for the ego and the separation has given us.
We are not victims of the events of our lives. We are the creators of everything that shows up in our script. We will change our minds about maintaining separation when we see how peace and happiness can never be found with the ego. We will then see what the ego offers is not in our best interests because it will only bring more misery and suffering. "The Holy Spirit does not demand you sacrifice the hope of the body's pleasure; it has no hope of pleasure." (T.19.IV.B.3.5) (ACIM OE T.19.V.b.62) When we align with the ego, happiness will always elude us. When we acknowledge the truth of this, we will be highly motivated to choose against it.
I am so thankful to have found this path that leads me home. There is nowhere else to look. There is nothing in this world to find. All paths here lead nowhere. We choose to connect with our inner Guide and listen to His Voice. Why not now? It is all about choice. No one, not even Jesus, will ever interfere with our decision. The power is in our own minds, and when we turn within, we find that the truth is there. It has never left us. It is our inner Guide we turn to, and we ask in everything: "What would You have me do? Where would You have me go? What would You have me say, and to whom?"(W.71.9.3-5)
I will take the time today to set my intention for the kind of day I want. With every temptation to get invested in things of this world and to lose my peace, I will remember to be still an instant and go home. With every apparent attack and every seeming worry, I will remember this is not my home. I will choose instead the peace of God. I will remember my reality is not a body. I can be free of my belief this body and the world are my reality anytime I choose. "I will be still an instant and go home." (W.202 Review 182)
Today in meditation repeat the idea and then, with eyes closed, focus on releasing the mental activity going on in your mind and sit in silent readiness to experience God's Love. It does not mean you have no thoughts, only that you gently pass them by without attaching to them. Be the watcher of those thoughts. Your reality is the observer behind the thoughts. You are the dreamer of this dream, not the figure in the dream. Offer your practice period to Him with desire and passion for the truth and simply be open to the experience of the holy instant where there is no time and no body. If wandering thoughts intrude, watch them go by and willingly let them go. Recognize these thoughts you do not want, but choose instead the idea for the day.
Remind yourself of the truth throughout the day and, if temptations arise today, where you get upset and lose your peace, proclaim your freedom by saying, "This thought I do not want, I choose instead,(W.RVI.6.2) 'I will be still an instant and go home'." (W.202.REVIEW W.182)
Love and blessings, Sarah
Printable Document
*Course in Miracles Society (CIMS) uses the original handscript:
"
I will be still a moment and go home.
"
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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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