[acimlessons_list] Lesson 31--November 15

[Allen Watson]

Lesson 319

"I came for the salvation of the world."

PRACTICE SUMMARY (See Part II Practice Summary, and also Part II
Introduction)

COMMENTARY

The Course is quite clear that our purpose here, every one of us, is the
salvation of the world. This is quite different from the purpose for
which the ego came to the world, which was to find a place where God
could not enter; to hide from God, so to speak, and eventually, to die.
But the Holy Spirit has a different purpose for everything the ego made
for its nefarious purposes. Our purpose here is to bring the world back
to light by allowing ourselves to be transformed, becoming God's
extensions in the dream to awaken all our brothers along with ourselves.

To say, "I am here to save the world," which is just a slight paraphrase
of the lesson title, sounds very arrogant to us. But "Here is a thought
from which all arrogance has been removed" (1:1). It is not arrogant
because it is the truth; this is what God created us for, and the
function He has assigned to us. To say otherwise is arrogance because it
opposes the truth and tries to make for ourselves a role we do not have.

When our arrogance is removed, "truth will come immediately" (1:3) to
fill up the empty spot left by it. Our self-appointed roles are blocking
and interfering with the function given to us by God. The reason
thinking that we are here to save the world is not arrogant is that
"what one gains is given unto all" (1:6). So accepting our function as
saviors means that we accept it for all; our brothers become our saviors
just as we become theirs. If the Will of God is total (2:1), then the
goal of God must be total; it must be the salvation of the entire world
(2:3), not just of me and you and our sister Sue.

To bring the world home to oneness is God's Will, and therefore it is
"the Will my Self has shared with" (2:4) Him. It is my will as well. We
are here for the healing of all minds. Our will is that everyone awaken
to love, and that is our only purpose in being here.

"I am come for the salvation of the world." Repeating this to myself,
reminding myself of this, is an interesting exercise. Another way of
saying it is, "I am here only to be truly helpful." Let me remind myself
of this today. I am not here to make a name for myself, to make money,
or to achieve the temporal and temporary things I think of as my goals.
I am here to help. I am here to heal. I am here to bless. I am here to
save the world.

WHAT IS THE LAST JUDGMENT? (Part 9)

W-pII.10.5:1

"This is God's Final Judgment: 'You are still My holy Son, forever
innocent, forever loving and forever loved, as limitless as your
Creator, and completely changeless and forever pure.'"

I find myself reading this sentence over and over; I feel that I need to
hear it often, because I am aware of the part of my mind that does not
believe it.

I am forever innocent. And yet I still feel guilty at times. I have done
things, in my life, that I am certainly not proud of. I have let others
down. I've failed to be there for them when they expected me to be
there. I've given up on love. I have said things calculated to hurt. I
have been deceitful. Like everyone, I carry a certain amount of regret
for some things in my past. But God sees me as forever innocent. To me,
one of the most poignant lines in the Course is, "You have not lost your
innocence" (W-pI.182.12:1). Sometimes I think that the best definition
of "miracle" is the shift in perception that allows us to see ourselves
as completely innocent. It is extremely difficult for us to see this
about ourselves; to me, that is one of the prime values of a holy
relationship. The Course tells us we cannot, alone, see ourselves as
totally innocent; we need another with whom we can learn this together.

I am forever loving. Again, there seems to be evidence in my past to
contradict this. The Course would say the evidence is false, that we are
not seeing the whole picture, and that what appeared to be unloving was
really our own fear and call for love. We are in pain over what we think
we have done, but the Final Judgment will free us of that pain forever,
and we will be able to see that we have always been loving, and are
forever. Nothing we have done has changed this.

I am forever loved. Ah! This one is often hard to believe, and for all
the same reasons; we do not feel loveable, and we sometimes do not love
ourselves. I recall taking part in a guided meditation in which I was
directed to extend love, blessing, and compassionate understanding to
everyone else in the room, and then to the neighborhood, and finally to
the world. And then, imagining myself looking down on the world from
above, to see myself, sitting there, and to extend that same love,
blessing, and compassionate understanding to myself. I felt a deep
melting inside of me, the hardness of self-judgment giving way to
compassion, and I wept. How hard we are on ourselves! And how seldom we
realize just how tightly we hold ourselves in the vice of judgment.

I am as limitless as my Creator. That stretches my credibility and my
comprehension. The place to which the Course is taking us, where this is
understood and known as true, is far beyond what we even imagine.

I am completely changeless. The experience of constant change, of mood
swings, of up and down, of high and low, is not who I really am. The
Course tells me, "It is not you who is so vulnerable and open to attack
that just a word, a little whisper that you do not like, a circumstance
that suits you not, or an event that you did not anticipate upsets your
world, and hurls it into chaos" (T-24.III.3:1). That may be who I
<think> I am, but that is not me, not my Self.

I am forever pure. Pure means unmixed, unadulterated. I often experience
myself as an unwholesome mixture of good, bad and indifferent. That is
not who I am. I am pure; without mixture.

And in God's Final Judgment, I will know all of this. I can know it now.
I can hear His Word to me today, in the holy instant. This message is
what is communicated to me, wordlessly, each time I enter His Presence.
This message is what is given to me, and to you, to share with the world.

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

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Portions from Clarification of Terms (c) Copyright 1975, Psychotherapy:
Purpose, Process and Practice, (c) 1976, The Song of Prayer, (c) 1978, are
used by permission of the copyright holder, The Foundation for "A Course in
Miracles," 41397 Buecking Drive, Temecula, CA 92590.


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