[acimlessons_list] Lesson 307 - November 3

Tue Nov 2 06:01:38 EST 2004

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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 307 - November 3

"Conflicting wishes cannot be my will."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: To take the last few steps to God. To wait for Him to take the
final step.

Morning/Evening Quiet Time: as long as needed.

Read the written lesson.

Use idea and prayer to introduce time of quiet. Do not depend on the words.
Use them as a simple invitation to God to come to you.

Sit silently and wait for God. Wait in quiet expectancy for Him to reveal
Himself to you. Seek only direct, deep, wordless experience of Him. Be
certain of His coming, and unafraid. For He has promised that when you
invite Him, He will come. You ask only that He keep His ancient promise,
which He wills to keep. These times are your gift to Him.

Hourly Remembrance: Do not forget.

Give thanks to God that He has remained with you and will always be there to
answer your call to Him.

Frequent Reminder: As often as possible, even every minute.

Remember the idea. Dwell with God, let Him shine on you.

Response To Temptation: When you are tempted to forget your goal.

Use idea as a call to God and all temptation will disappear.

Reading: preceding one of the day's moments of practice.

Slowly read "What is...?" section.

Think about it a while.

Overall Remarks: Now, in this final part of the year that you and Jesus have
spent together, you begin to reach the goal of practicing and of the course.
Jesus is so close that you cannot fail. You have come far along the road. Do
not look back. Fix you eyes on the journey's end. You could not have come
this far without realizing that you want to know God. And this is all He
requires to come to you.

(See also Part II Introduction)

COMMENTARY

"There is no other will for me to have" (1:2) except the Will of God. No
other will exists. The idea that there could be something--the devil,
myself, even a part of myself--that is opposed to God is the root idea of
separation. Trying to "make another will" (1:3) is futile; nothing exists
outside of God, the Ground of all being. Trying to make a will other than
God's is the source of pain (1:3); pain is the false witness to the attempt.

If no will but God's exists, then "conflicting wishes cannot be my will."
The apparent experience of mental conflict I feel, the mental war between
the Jekyll and Hyde within myself, must be an illusion and cannot be what I
want. I must learn to accept that the desires in me that seem to be in
conflict with my true Self are not real, and do not contain any truth about
me. They do not mean I am depraved or hopeless. They mean nothing at all.

I have no alternative. "I must accept Your Will for me, and enter into peace
where conflict is impossible, Your Son is one with You in being and in will,
and nothing contradicts the holy truth that I remain as You created me"
(1:5).

In simple terms, God created me; I did not. What I am is not the result of
my independent choice. I am as God created me. I have no choice in the
matter. Total peace is impossible until I accept this as the truth, and let
myself fall back into what is so, putting an end to my fight with reality.
Let me end the war; let me surrender to my Self.

What is the Second Coming? (Part 7)

W-pII.9.4:1-2

"The Second Coming is the one event in time which time itself can not
affect" (4:1). This is true because the Second Coming is merely the
remembrance of what is eternal, and can never change. It is an "event in
time," that is, it still takes place within the context of time, although it
brings an end to time itself. The Second Coming affects time, but time
cannot affect it.

"For every one who ever came to die, or yet will come or who is present now,
is equally released from what he made" (4:2). When we say that in the Second
Coming all minds are "given to the hands of Christ," the "all" has to
include not only the people alive now, but those who lived before and those
still yet to come. The Second Coming therefore, although it occurs within
time, transcends time. It reaches back into the past to release those who
lived before, as well as including those "alive" in bodies at the time. It
is a trans-temporal event. No one is excluded. The Text says that miracles
"...undo the past in the present, and thus release the future" (T-1.I.13:3).
The idea that we can literally "undo" the past is astounding, and very
reassuring. We are told that the Holy Spirit can "undo all the consequences
of [our] wrong decision if [we] will let Him" (T-5.VII.6:10). The Second
Coming is the ultimate expression of that, in which everyone, even those in
the past, are "released from what [they] made," or freed from the illusions
they set up.

I don't know how this will happen. When the Course tells us that the Holy
Spirit is not limited by time (T-15.I.2:3-5), I can't say that I understand
how He can reach back in time and heal things that have already happened
from our perspective. Yet the Course is quite clear that He can do so. In
the Second Coming, every false perception from the beginning of time to the
end of it will be healed. No condemnation, and no guilt, will remain in any
mind, any where, any when.

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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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