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Anger takes many forms, but it cannot long deceive those who will learn that love brings no guilt at all, and what brings guilt cannot be love and
must be anger.
All anger is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel guilty, and this attempt is the
only basis which the ego accepts for special relationships.
"The Holy Instant
and Communication"
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Workbook for Students
Review V
Introduction
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1 We now 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.
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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.
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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.
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Workbook for Students
Review V ~ Lesson 174
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God is but Love,
and therefore so am I.
[157] Into His Presence would I enter now.
God is but Love,
and therefore so am I.
[158] Today I learn to give as I receive.
God is but Love,
and therefore so am I.
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Lesson ARCHIVE
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Course in Miracles
Original Edition
Text
Chapter 15
The Purpose of Time
VIII. The Holy Instant
and Communication
par 65-78
[TEXT READING PAUSED FOR WEEKEND]
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65 Beyond the poor attraction of the special love relationship and
always obscured by it is the powerful attraction of the Father for His Son. There is no other love that can satisfy you, because there
is no other love. This is the
only love that is fully given and fully returned. Being complete, it asks nothing. Being wholly pure, everyone joined in it
has everything. This is not the basis for
any relationship in which the ego enters. For every relationship on which the ego embarks
is special. The ego establishes relationships only to
get something. And it would keep the giver bound to itself through guilt.
66 It is impossible for the ego to enter into any relationship without anger, for the ego believes that anger makes
friends. This is not its statement, but it
is its purpose. For the ego really
believes that it can get and keep
by making guilty. This is its
one attraction; an attraction so weak that it would have no hold at all, except that no one
recognizes it. For the ego always
seems to attract through love and has no attraction at all to anyone who perceives that it attracts through
guilt.
67 The sick attraction of guilt must be recognized for what it
is. For having been made real to you, it is essential to look at it clearly, and by withdrawing your
investment in it, to learn to let it go. No one would choose to let go what he believes has value. Yet the attraction of guilt has value to you only because you have
not looked at what it is and have judged it completely in the dark. As we bring it to light, your only question will be why it was you
ever wanted it. You have nothing to lose by looking open-eyed at this, for ugliness such as this belongs not in your holy mind. The host of God
can have no real investment here.
68 We said before that the ego attempts to maintain and increase guilt, but in such a way that you do not recognize what it would do to
you. For it is the ego's fundamental doctrine that what you do to others,
you have escaped. The ego wishes
no one well. Yet its survival depends on your belief that
you are exempt from its evil intentions. It counsels, therefore, that if you are host to
it, it will enable you to direct the anger that it holds outward, thus
protecting you. And thus it embarks on an endless, unrewarding chain of special relationships, forged out of anger and dedicated to but one insane belief—that the more anger you invest
outside yourself, the safer
you become.
69 It is this chain that binds the Son of God to guilt, and it is this chain the Holy Spirit would remove from his holy mind. For the chain of savagery belongs not around the chosen host of God, who
cannot make himself host to the ego. In the name of his release, and in the name of Him Who would release him, let us look more closely at the relationships which the ego contrives, and let the Holy Spirit judge them truly. For it is certain that, if you will
look at them, you will offer them gladly to Him. What
He can make of them, you do not know, but you will become willing to find out if you are willing, first, to perceive what
you have made of them.
70 In one way or another, every relationship which the ego makes is based on the idea that by
sacrificing itself, it becomes
bigger. The "sacrifice," which it regards as purification, is actually the root of its bitter resentment. For it would much prefer to attack directly and avoid delaying what it
really wants. Yet the ego acknowledges "reality" as it sees it and recognizes that no one could interpret
direct attack as love. Yet to make guilty
is direct attack but does not
seem to be. For the guilty
expect attack, and having
asked for it, they are
attracted to it.
71 In these insane relationships, the attraction of what you do not want seems to be much stronger than the attraction of what you
do. For each one thinks that he has sacrificed something to the other and
hates him for it. Yet this is what he thinks he
wants. He is not in love with the other at all. He merely believes he is in love with
sacrifice. And for this sacrifice, which he demanded of
himself, he demands the
other accept the guilt and sacrifice himself as well. Forgiveness becomes impossible, for the ego believes that to forgive another is to
lose him. For it is only by attack
without forgiveness that the ego can ensure the guilt which holds all its relationships together.
72 Yet they only
seem to be together. For relationships, to the ego, mean only that
bodies are together. It is always physical closeness that the ego demands, and it does not object where the
mind goes or what
it thinks, for this seems unimportant. As long as the body is there to receive its sacrifice, it is content. To the ego, the mind is private, and only the
body can be shared. Ideas are basically of no concern, except as they draw the body of another closer or farther. And it is in these terms that it evaluates ideas as good or bad. What makes another guilty and
holds him through guilt is "good." What
releases him from guilt is "bad," because he would no longer believe that bodies communicate, and so he would be "gone."
73 Suffering and sacrifice are the gifts with which the ego would "bless" all unions. And those who are united at its altar
accept suffering and sacrifice as the price of union. In their angry alliances, born of the fear of loneliness and yet dedicated to the
continuance of loneliness, they seek relief from guilt by increasing it in the
other. For they believe that this decreases it in
them. The other seems always to be attacking and wounding
them, perhaps in little ways, perhaps "unconsciously," yet never without demand of sacrifice. The fury of those joined at the ego's altar far exceeds your awareness of it. For what the ego
really wants, you do not realize.
74 Whenever you are angry, you can be sure that you have formed a special relationship which the ego has "blessed," for anger
is its blessing. Anger takes many forms, but it cannot long deceive those who will learn that love brings no guilt at all, and what brings guilt cannot be love and
must be anger.
All anger is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel guilty, and this attempt is the
only basis which the ego accepts for special relationships. Guilt is the only need the ego has, and as long as you identify with it, guilt will
remain attractive to you.
75 Yet remember this—to be with a body is
not communication. And if you think it is, you will feel guilty about communication and will be
afraid to hear the Holy Spirit, recognizing in His voice your
own need to communicate. The Holy Spirit
cannot teach through fear. And how can He communicate with you while you believe that to communicate is to make yourself
alone? It is clearly insane to believe that by communicating you will be abandoned. And yet you
do believe it. For you think that your minds must be kept private or you will
lose them, and if your
bodies are together your minds remain your own. The union of bodies thus becomes the way in which you would keep
minds apart. For bodies cannot forgive. They can only do as the mind directs.
76 The illusion of the autonomy of the body and
its ability to overcome loneliness is but the working of the ego's plan to establish its
own autonomy. As long as you believe that to be with a body is companionship, you will be compelled to attempt to keep your brother in his body, held there by guilt. And you will see
safety in guilt and
danger in communication. For the ego will
always teach that loneliness is solved by guilt and that communication is the
cause of loneliness. And despite the evident insanity of this lesson, you have
learned it.
77 Forgiveness lies in communication as surely as damnation lies in guilt. It is the Holy Spirit's teaching function to instruct those who believe that communication is damnation that communication is
salvation. And He will do so, for the power of God in Him
and you is joined in
real relationship, so holy and so strong that it can overcome even
this without fear. It is through the holy instant that what seems impossible is
accomplished, making it evident that it is
not impossible. In the holy instant, guilt holds
no attraction, since communication has been restored. And guilt, whose
only purpose is to disrupt communication, has no function here.
78 Here there is no concealment and no private thoughts. The willingness to communicate attracts communication
to it and overcomes loneliness completely. There is complete forgiveness here, for there is no desire to exclude anyone from your completion in sudden recognition of the value of his part in it. In the protection of
your wholeness, all are invited and made welcome. And you understand that your completion is God's, Whose only need is to have
you be complete. For your completion makes you His in your awareness. And here it is that you experience yourself as you were created and as you
are.
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Sarah's Reflections
Lesson 174 ~ Review V
[Review Lessons 157-158]
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[157] Into His Presence would I enter now.
[158] Today I learn to give as I receive.
We continue today to review the Lessons with the constant reminder,
"God is but Love and therefore so am I."
(W.RV.4.3) Anything God creates is like Himself---holy, sinless, innocent, an endless spring of love, and immortal as Himself. We are not human beings who are desperately seeking our spirituality or having a spiritual experience. We actually
are
spiritual beings, who
think
that we are having a human experience, although we are dreaming that we are here.
The truth is that we are love. We defend against that love in order to maintain an existence separate from God. But now we choose to bring our defenses to awareness, recognizing how unhappy we are in our seemingly separated state.
We are guided on this journey by the Holy Spirit, Who is the quiet presence in our right minds, but as long as we stay in control of our process and believe everything is up to us, we will continue to take the lead ourselves. When we are willing to step back and let Him lead the way, we then give over our separate will and agree to have our Father,
"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."
(W.RV.2.5-6) The truth is within us now, and Jesus is leading us to this state of happiness and peace that is not possible to achieve by our own efforts, no matter how hard we try. When we think we know our own best interests, we are constantly reaching out for pleasure, but we always receive pain because that is the way the ego set it all up.
We take this teaching on faith until we have the experience that affirms the truth of it. Yet since the truth is already in our minds, we resonate with what is said here. When we defend against it, we experience resistance to his teaching, but he is gentle with us. We are in charge of how quickly we go. Thus, we don't have to be afraid that we will be hurled into Heaven. Our awakening is a gentle process, even though to the ego the events of our lives are often not to our liking. But since everything that seems to happen is by our own choosing, we are not victims of the events and circumstances of our lives.
As we apply the Lessons, we increasingly experience a shift into greater peace and freedom. We have all had experiences of being in the right place at the right time, of meeting people who we are meant to meet, of feeling in the flow where everything works easily, and of having things work out when we take our hands off of the steering wheel of our lives or when we give up control even a little. Alternatively, when things seem not to be moving in this kind of flow and challenges arise, we can remember to ask for help in choosing peace. Everything made by the ego can be used by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of undoing what does not serve us. Nothing the ego has made will ever bring happiness. We are reminded that we don't know our own best interests and that our greatest setbacks, as seen by the ego, can actually be our greatest spiritual advances. When we let all things be exactly as they are and not fight and resist what comes, we become happy learners.
"You are not a happy learner yet because you still remain uncertain that vision gives you more than judgment does, and you have learned that both you cannot have."
(T.21.I.3.7) (ACIM OE T.21.II.5) Until we step through this conflict, there will be resistance to the Lessons. When the conflict becomes sufficiently painful, we will be ready to take the giant strides to our freedom by focusing all our efforts on the Holy Spirit's Lessons.
How do we learn to hear the guidance? The approach taken in the Course to help us with the decision process that we go through every day is different than what we have learned in the world. No tools are given to us to make better, wiser, or more effective decisions. Jesus tells us that we are incapable of good decisions, so we need to let the Holy Spirit decide for us. This means that we make room for Him to guide our lives. We just need to ask in everything we do. We might complain that we don't hear His Voice, which is actually speaking to us throughout the day. But when we don't, it is because we are listening to our own voice, which is the voice of the ego. That voice is loud and raucous. To be guided is to trust our intuition and choose not to listen to the fearful thoughts of the ego and all of its doubts. We bring its wrong-minded dictates to the truth by placing them on the inner altar.
When we have the desire and willingness to hear and the confidence that the answers will be provided, we can trust in the perfection of everything that shows up for our healing. When we don't hear, it is because our minds are cluttered with guilt and fear thoughts. We want to stay in control, and thus, we resist guidance. With time and practice, our trust will grow, and increasingly we will find that we are releasing control, day-by-day, step-by-step. When we do so, the guidance becomes clearer, as long as we keep remembering to step back and let Him take the lead.
Jesus reminds us,
"We sing the song of thankfulness today, in honor of the Self that God has willed to be our true Identity in Him."
(W.123.4.2)
"And we give thanks that in our solitude a Friend has come to speak the saving Word of God to us. And thanks to you for listening to Him. His Word is soundless if it be not heard."
(W.123.5.2-4) Thus, our ability to listen comes when the obstacles in our minds are seen and brought to the light of Truth.
Today, we enter a day of silence and of trust. We remind ourselves that we can be wholly unafraid and thus completely trusting because of our invulnerability as Spirit. As we walk in trust and unafraid, we choose Christ's Vision.
"It sees no separation. And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings and all events, without the slightest fading of the light it sees."
(W.158.7.4-5) No matter what comes up as we go through the day, we recognize that there is no value in anything except to know our identity as the love that we are.
Often, I find that when a situation shows up for me that seems problematic, and if I don't try to address it on my own but live in the not knowing, the answer comes in unexpected ways. Guidance comes in many forms. We just need to stay aware and tune into the guidance, whether it shows up as an inner voice, in pictures, nighttime dreams, a gut instinct, coincidences, feelings, a stirring in the heart, or other signs or symbols.
In this journey to awakening, Jesus goes with us. He says,
"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. We walk together. I must understand uncertainty and pain, although I know they have no meaning. Yet a savior must remain with those he teaches, seeing what they see, but still retaining in his mind the way that led him out, and now will lead you out with him. God's Son is crucified until you walk along the road with me."
(W.RV.6.1-6)
He knows the way out, and he has shared our experience. He understands all that makes our progress slow and about our hesitation on this road. He knows what lies at the end of the road. He knows our doubts and fears, and yet he sees a way out. He is our perfect teacher and holds our hand through every step of this journey to the end. He knows both the journey and the end of it as a result of his own experience. He never raises himself above us but walks beside us as an equal. It is so encouraging when we take this seriously. Can you really imagine the perfect, most loving teacher who has had the experience we have had, lovingly walking with us through each practice period and motivating us to hasten our footsteps? We ask this of God in our prayer, but he needs us to do our part.
"My resurrection comes again each time I lead a brother safely to the place at which the journey ends and is forgot."
(W.RV.7.1) This is the part of our mind where the journey began with the choice for the ego. This led to the experience of this body and the world. The journey ends with the Correction of our mistaken choice for the ego. The choice for resurrection is the same choice made by Jesus. He demonstrates for us that we can make the same choice he made so that we can realize our own resurrection, as we awaken from this dream of death.
"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."
(W.RV.8.1) He is the symbol of the awakened mind, right there with us, because he is in our minds. Indeed, he says,
"I am incomplete without your part in me."
(W.RV.8.7) There is only one Son, but we need to ask for his help, or he cannot help us because we are free to choose as we desire.
It is a journey back to our ancient home---a home that was prepared for us "before time was." It has been kept pristine, safe, immaculate, and unchanged through eons of time. It is awaiting our return, though we have never left except in dreams.
I will refer to David Hawkins, simply because I am currently inspired by reading his book, "Discovery of the Presence of God: Devotional Non-Duality." In it he says:
"The pace of spiritual evolution is not under personal control and may take sudden surprising leaps. Therefore, It is wise to prepare beforehand with knowledge of what yet may come." Certainly, that is the reason for our study of the Text. It helps us see what is yet to come. And to the question of why we sometimes feel like we are not making progress on this path to enlightenment, his words are encouraging. "There is no point to wondering how am I doing? For the compass has already been set by dedication and devotion to the highest truth. While the pace may seem slow or even arduous at times, it is best to be prepared for sudden, unexpected leaps. It is wise to avoid pessimism, even after a seemingly long, dry period of frustration, for such periods are due to overcoming major obstacles and attachments that often presage major changes."
Today,
"We place faith in the experience that comes from practice, not the means we use."
(W.RV.12.2) Thus, our faith is in the experience we have when we use the words of this Lesson to point us to the truth. It is an experience of deep peace, a feeling of being connected with all there is, and a trust in our brothers and in the journey that we seem to be undertaking.
Love and blessings, Sarah
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Allen Watson's
Workbook Commentaries
Allen joined Robert Perry in forming the Circle of Atonement in 1993 in Sedona, Arizona where Allen led retreats and workshops and authored many books based on “A Course in Miracles.” One of his most popular books is
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