[acimlessons_list] Lesson 306 - November 2

[Susan Carrier]

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+ COMMENTARIES ON LESSONS FROM THE WORKBOOK OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
+ by Allen Watson, with Practice Summaries by Robert Perry, 
+ of The Circle of Atonement
+ Visit our website at <http://www.circleofa.com <http://www.circleofa.com/>
>
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LESSON 306 - November 2

"The gift of Christ is all I seek today."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

(See also Part II Introduction)

COMMENTARY

Often these closing lessons of the Workbook tell me that I can enter the
real world today. "Today I can forget the world I made. Today I can go past
all fear, and be restored to love and holiness and peace" (1:2-3). And it is
true. If the "world so like to Heaven" (1:1) is truly real, then it exists
now, and can be entered at any instant I am willing to do so.

And yet these lessons, to me and to many others, seem to be speaking from a
vantage point that is beyond our current reach. Most of the time, I don't
feel that I am on the verge of reaching the end of the journey; do you? I
may think that I would like to go past all fear, but that hasn't been my
general experience to date. Only, perhaps, in a few holy instants. So the
lessons, perhaps, seem a little above my head. But really, they aren't.

The lesson for today itself implies a less than exalted state; it says that
the gift of Christ is all I "seek" today. If I am seeking it, I don't
possess it yet in full awareness. Strongly, then, the lesson reminds me that
today I can forget the world; today I can go past all fear and be restored
to love. It reminds me that, in the core of my being, this is what I want.
Aware I am not there, I need to be reminded that the goal I seek is truly
possible and not simply an idle dream.

More than that, though. One of the means for our salvation the Course
propounds is the holy instant. The holy instant is, in simple terms, a brief
interval in which I allow my mind to enter the real world, to reach to
another state of mind (see T-27.IV.2:1-4) which is, in fact, my natural
condition as God created me. I may still have too much fear to let go
entirely, but I can come for a few minutes at least and, just for now,
forget the world and go past my fear to experience a taste of Heaven's
peace, a glimpse of Heaven's light. I can do this repeatedly during the day.
Today, then, I really can forget the world and go past fear, even if just
for a second or two.

I may not be able to sustain that state of mind. Yet I can taste it. I can
bring back the vision of what I see there. The Course says that only in rare
cases can this state be maintained; even Jesus, early in the Course, said
that listening only to the Voice for God was the last lesson he learned, and
that only with "effort and great willingness." We need not despair at this,
and should not. The brief instants are all we need to guarantee that
eventually, when we are fully prepared, we will make that final decision and
choose at last not to draw back from Love. That end is sure. For now we can
be content with the fact that we are healing, we are learning, we are
nurturing our attraction to God, and that eventually it will carry us all
the way home.


What is the Second Coming? (Part 6)

W-pII.9.3:2

"The Second Coming is the time in which all minds are given to the hands of
Christ, to be returned to spirit in the name of true creation and the Will
of God."

The Second Coming is the giving of all minds to Christ (3:2)

The Second Coming is a corporate event, in which every mind participates.
One by one, in an accelerating profusion, minds enter the realm of true
perception and perceive the real world, shown by forgiveness. Each newly
restored mind draws all those around it to join in the circle of Atonement
until every last fragment of mind has been re-joined to the Whole (or more
correctly, each fragment recognizes its place as part of the Whole).
"Salvation...restores to your awareness the wholeness of the fragments you
perceive as broken off and separate" (M-19.4:1-2). The Second Coming is the
culmination of this process.

 
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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
+ Available in book format from The Circle
+ of Atonement (Vol. 1 reprint due by end of 2004, write us for info)
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