"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.
Herein Lies the peace of God."
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A
Course in Miracles
TEXT
PAUSED FOR WEEKEND
CHAPTER 18
The Dream and the Reality
V. The Little Willingness
32
The holy instant is the result of your determination to be holy. It is the
answer
. The desire and the willingness to let it come precedes its coming. You prepare your minds for it only to the extent of recognizing that you want it above all else. It is not necessary that you do more; indeed, it is necessary that you realize that you cannot do more. Do not attempt to give the Holy Spirit what He does not ask, or you will add the ego unto Him and confuse the two. He asks but little. It is
He
who adds the greatness and the might. He joins with you to make the holy instant far greater than you can understand. It is your realization that you need do so little that enables Him to give so much.
33
Trust not your good intentions. They are not enough. But trust implicitly your willingness, whatever else may enter. Concentrate only on this and be not disturbed that shadows surround it. That is why you came. If you could come without them, you would not need the holy instant. Come to it not in arrogance, assuming that you must achieve the state its coming brings with it. The miracle of the holy instant lies in your willingness to let it be what it is. And in your willingness for this lies also your acceptance of yourself as you were meant to be.
34
Humility will never ask that you remain content with littleness. But it
does
require that you be
not
content with less than greatness, which comes not of you. Your difficulty with the holy instant arises from your fixed conviction that you are not worthy of it. And what is this but the determination to be as you would make yourself? God did not create His dwelling-place unworthy of Him. And if you believe He cannot enter where He wills to be, you must be interfering with His Will. You do not need the strength of willingness to come from
you
, but only from
His
Will.
35
The holy instant does not come from your little willingness alone. It is always the result of your small willingness combined with the unlimited power of God's Will. You have been wrong in thinking that it is needful to prepare yourself for Him. It is impossible to make arrogant preparations for holiness and not believe that it is up to you to establish the conditions for peace. God has established them. They do not wait upon your willingness for what they are. Your willingness is needed only to make it possible to
teach
you what they are. If you maintain you are unworthy of learning this, you are interfering with the lesson by believing that you make the
learner
different. You did not make the learner, nor can you make him different. Would you first make a miracle yourself and then expect one to be made
for
you?
36
You merely ask the question. The answer is given. Seek not to answer it, but merely receive the answer as it is given. In preparing for the holy instant, do not attempt to make yourself holy to be ready to receive it. That is but to confuse your role with God's. Atonement cannot come to those who think that they must first atone, but only to those who offer it nothing more than simple willingness to make way for it. Purification is of God alone and therefore for you. Rather than seek to prepare yourself for Him, try to think thus:
37
I who am host to God
am
worthy of Him. He Who established His dwelling-place in me created it as He would have it be. It is not needful that I make it ready for Him, but only that I do not interfere with His plan to restore to me my own awareness of my readiness, which is eternal. I need add nothing to His plan. But to receive it, I must be willing not to substitute my own in place of it.
38
And that is all. Add more and you will merely take away the little that is asked. Remember you made guilt and that your plan for the escape from guilt has been to bring Atonement
to
it and make salvation fearful. And it is only fear that you will add if you prepare yourself for love. The preparation for the holy instant belongs to Him Who gives it. Release yourselves to Him Whose function is release. Do not assume His function for Him. Give Him but what He asks, that you may learn how little is your part and how great is His.
39
It is this that makes the holy instant so easy and so natural. You make it difficult because you insist there must be more that you need do. [You find it difficult to
accept
the idea that you need give so
little
to receive so much.] And it is very hard for you to realize that it is not personally insulting that your contribution and the Holy Spirit's are so extremely disproportionate. You are still convinced your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. Salvation is easy just
because
it asks nothing that you cannot give
right now
.
40
Forget not that it has been your decision to make everything that is natural and easy for you impossible. What you believe to be impossible will be if God so wills it, but you will remain quite unaware of it. If you believe the holy instant is difficult for you, it is because you have become the arbiter of what is possible and remain unwilling to give place to One Who knows. The whole belief in orders of difficulty in miracles is centered on this. Everything God wills is not only possible but has already happened. And that is why the past has gone. It
never
happened in reality. Only in your minds, which thought it did, is its undoing needful.
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A Course in Miracles
WORKBOOK
Part I
Review VI
1
For this review, we take but one idea each day and practice it as often as is possible. Besides the time you give morning and evening, which should not be less than 15 minutes, and the hourly remembrances you 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 were 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.
2
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 20 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.
3
These practice sessions, like our last review, are centered round a central theme with which we start and end each lesson. It is this:
4
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
5
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 relinquishment of everything that clutters up the mind and makes it deaf to reason, sanity, and simple truth.
6
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 knew and understood. For thus is freedom given us from all we did not know and failed to understand.
7
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 you practice for the day.
8
When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim your freedom from temptation as you say:
9
This thought I do not want. I choose instead….
10
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 a few formal expressions or 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.
11
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.
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A Course in Miracles
WORKBOOK
Lesson 202
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.
1
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?
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ACIM Edmonton
Sarah's Reflections
Lesson 202 Review VI
[182] I will be still an instant* and go home.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
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)
*Course in Miracles Society (CIMS) uses the original handscript:
"
I will be still a moment and go home.
"
Love and blessings, Sarah
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