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Grandeur is totally
without illusions
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"The ego is immobilized in the presence of God's grandeur because
His grandeur establishes
your freedom. Even the faintest hint of your reality literally drives the ego from your mind because of complete lack of investment in it. Grandeur is totally
without illusions, and because it is real, it is compellingly convincing. Yet the conviction of reality will not remain with you unless you do not allow the ego to attack it.
"
Par 51
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ACIM OE TEXT
CH 9 THE CORRECTION OF ERROR
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Workbook for Students
Part I
Lesson 108
To give and to receive
are one in truth.
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1 Vision depends upon today's idea. The light is in it, for it reconciles all seeming opposites. And what is light except the resolution, born of peace, of all your conflicts and mistaken thoughts into one concept which is wholly true? Even that one will disappear because the Thought behind it will appear instead, to take its place. And now we are at peace forever, for the dream is over now.
2 True light which makes true vision possible is not the light the body's eyes behold. It is a state of mind which has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all. And thus what is the same is seen as one, while what is not the same remains unnoticed, for it is not there.
3 This is the light which shows no opposites, and vision, being healed, has power to heal. This is the light that brings your peace of mind to other minds, to share it and be glad that they are one with you and with themselves. This is the light which heals because it brings single perception, based upon one frame of reference from which one meaning comes.
4 Here are both giving and receiving seen as different aspects of one Thought Whose truth does not depend on which is seen as first, nor which appears to be in second place. Here it is understood that both occur together, that the Thought remain complete. And in this understanding is the base on which all opposites are reconciled because they are perceived from the same frame of reference which unifies this Thought.
5 One thought, completely unified, will serve to unify all thought. This is the same as saying one correction will suffice for all correction or that to forgive one brother wholly is enough to bring salvation to all minds. For these are but some special cases of one law which holds for every kind of learning if it be directed by the One Who knows the truth.
6 To learn that giving and receiving are the same has special usefulness because it can be tried so easily and seen as true. And when this special case has proved it always works in every circumstance where it is tried, the thought behind it can be generalized to other areas of doubt and double vision. And from there it will extend and finally arrive at the one Thought Which underlies them all.
7 Today we practice with the special case of giving and receiving. We will use this simple L e s s o n in the obvious because it has results we cannot miss. To give is to receive. Today we will attempt to offer peace to everyone and see how quickly peace returns to us. Light is tranquillity, and in that peace is vision given us and we can see.
8 So we begin the practice periods with the instruction for today and say:
9
To give and to receive are one in truth.
I will receive what I am giving now.
10 Then close your eyes, and for five minutes think of what you would hold out to everyone to have it yours. You might, for instance, say:
11
To everyone I offer quietness.
To everyone I offer peace of mind.
To everyone I offer gentleness.
12 Say each one slowly, and then pause a while, expecting to receive the gift you gave, and it will come to you in the amount in which you gave it. You will find you have exact return, for this is what you asked. It might be helpful, too, to think of one to whom to give your gifts. He represents the others, and through him you give to all.
13 Our very simple lesson for today will teach you much. Effect and cause will be far better understood from this time on, and we will make much faster progress now. Think of the exercises for today as quick advances in your learning, made still faster and more sure each time you say:
14 To give and to receive are one in truth.
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Lesson ARCHIVE
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Course in Miracles
Original Edition
TEXT
Chapter 9
The Correction of Error
VII. Grandeur Versus Grandiosity
Par 48-58
[READING PAUSED FOR WEEKEND]
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48 Grandeur is of God and
only of Him. Therefore, it is in you. Whenever you become aware of it, however dimly, you abandon the ego automatically because in the presence of the grandeur of God the meaninglessness of the ego becomes perfectly apparent. Though it does not understand this, the ego believes that its "enemy" has struck and attempts to offer gifts to induce you to return to its "protection."
Self-inflation of the ego is its alternative to the grandeur of God. Which will you choose?
49 Grandiosity is
always a cover for despair. It is without hope because it is not real. It is an attempt to counteract your littleness, based on the belief that the littleness is
real. Without this belief, grandiosity is meaningless, and you could not possibly want it. The essence of grandiosity is competitiveness because it
always involves attack. It is a delusional attempt to
outdo but
not to undo. We said before that the ego vacillates between suspiciousness and viciousness. It remains suspicious as long as you despair of yourself. It shifts to viciousness whenever you will not tolerate self-abasement and seek relief. Then it offers you the illusion of attack as a solution.
50 The ego does not know the difference between grandeur and grandiosity because it does not know the difference between miracle impulses and ego-alien beliefs of its own. We once said that the ego
is aware of threat, but does not make distinctions between two entirely different kinds of threat to its existence. Its own profound sense of vulnerability renders it incapable of judgment
except in terms of attack. When it experiences threat, its only decision is whether to attack
now or to withdraw to attack later. If you accept its offer of grandiosity, it will attack immediately. If you do not, it will wait.
51 The ego is immobilized in the presence of God's grandeur because
His grandeur establishes
your freedom. Even the faintest hint of your reality literally drives the ego from your mind because of complete lack of investment in it. Grandeur is totally
without illusions, and because it is real, it is compellingly convincing. Yet the conviction of reality will not remain with you unless you do not allow the ego to attack it. The ego will make every effort to recover and mobilize its energies
against your release. It will tell you that you are insane and argue that grandeur
cannot be a real part of you because of the littleness in which
it believes.
52 Yet your grandeur is not delusional
because you did not make it.
You have made grandiosity and are afraid of it because it is a form of attack, but your grandeur is of God, Who created it out of His Love. From your grandeur you can only bless, because your grandeur is your
abundance. By blessing, you hold it in your mind, protecting it from illusions and keeping yourself in the Mind of God. Remember always that you cannot be anywhere
except in the Mind of God. When you forget this, you
will despair, and you
will attack.
53 The ego depends
solely on your willingness to tolerate it. If you are willing to look upon your grandeur, you
cannot despair, and therefore you cannot
want the ego. Your grandeur is God's
answer to the ego because it is true. Littleness and grandeur cannot co-exist, nor is it possible for them to alternate in your awareness. Littleness and grandiosity can and
must alternate in your awareness since both are untrue and are therefore on the same level. Being the level of shift, it is experienced as shifting, and extremes are its essential characteristic.
54 Truth and littleness are
denials of each other because grandeur
is truth. Truth does not vacillate; it is
always true. When grandeur slips away from you, you have replaced it with something
you have made. Perhaps it is the belief in littleness; perhaps it is the belief in grandiosity. Yet it
must be insane because it is
not true. Your grandeur will
never deceive you, but your illusions
always will. Illusions
are deceptions. You cannot triumph, but you
are exalted. And in your exalted state, you seek others like you and rejoice with them.
55 It is easy to distinguish grandeur from grandiosity because love is returned, but pride is not. Pride will not produce miracles and therefore will deprive you of your true witnesses to your reality. Truth is not obscure nor hidden, but its obviousness to
you lies in the joy you bring to its witnesses, who
show it to you. They attest to your grandeur, but they cannot attest to pride because pride is not shared. God
wants you to behold what He created because it is His joy.
56 Can your grandeur be arrogant when God Himself witnesses to it? And what can be real that
has no witnesses? What good can come of it? And if no good can come of it, the Holy Spirit cannot use it. What He cannot transform to the Will of God does not exist at all. Grandiosity is delusional because it is used to
replace your grandeur. Yet what God has created cannot
be replaced. God is incomplete without you because His grandeur is total, and you cannot
be missing from it.
57 You are altogether irreplaceable in the Mind of God. No one else can fill your part of It, and while you leave your part of It empty, your eternal place merely waits for your return. God, through His Voice, reminds you of It, and God Himself keeps your extensions safe within It. Yet you do not know them until you return to them. You
cannot replace the Kingdom, and you cannot replace
yourself. God, Who
knows your value, would not have it so, and so it is
not so. Your value is in
God's Mind and therefore not in yours alone. To accept yourself as God created you cannot be arrogance because it is the
denial of arrogance. To accept your littleness
is arrogant because it means that you believe
your evaluation of yourself is
truer than God's.
58 Yet if truth is indivisible, your evaluation of yourself must
be God's. You did not establish your value, and it
needs no defense. Nothing can attack it or prevail over it. It does not vary. It merely
is. Ask the Holy Spirit
what it is and He will tell you, but do not be afraid of His answer, for it comes from God. It
is an exalted answer because of its Source, but the Source is true and so is Its answer. Listen and do not question what you hear, for God does not deceive. He would have you replace the ego's belief in littleness with His own exalted answer to the question of your being, so that you can cease to question it and
know it for what it
is.
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Sarah's Reflections
Lesson 108
To give and to receive
are one in truth.
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Sarah's Commentary:
This Lesson emphasizes the importance of getting the idea,
"To give and to receive are one in truth."
(W.108) Jesus tells us,
"Vision depends upon today's idea. The light is in it, for it reconciles all seeming opposites
.
"
(W.108.1.1-2) I thought about how the Course is written to make us stop and really puzzle over a thought. It reminded me of how Jesus spoke in parables in the Bible. His parables often required pondering the meaning in order to understand what he intended to convey. It is like the book,
The DaVinci Code
, where the author tells us that Leonardo DaVinci put obscure messages in his works for those who took the time to ponder what they might mean. Apparently, DaVinci did not go along with the way Constantine had changed the Bible to reflect his own personal political interests. One of those changes was the diminishing of the role of women where Mary Magdalene was described as a whore. In fact, we are told she was highly esteemed by Jesus and was, by some accounts, married to him. When DaVinci painted
The Last
Supper
, he included a woman, presumably Mary Magdalene, sitting on the right-hand side of Jesus. Since we don't expect to see a woman, we don't see her.
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Love and blessings, Sarah
Please send gifts of gratitude for these Reflections via PayPal to
huemmert@shaw.ca
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Allen Watson's
Workbook Commentaries
Allen Watson
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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