[acimlessons_list] Lesson 331 - November 27

Fri Nov 26 06:50:51 EST 2004

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 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/> >
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lesson 331 - November 27

"There is no conflict, for my will is Yours."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

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

COMMENTARY

I was saying in a study group recently that our fundamental problem is
that we really believe we are, deep down in our hearts, terrible
people. We don't trust our own love. A fellow was expressing some
concerns about how the material of the course could be used to justify
just about any behavior. I could go out and rob a liquor store because
the world is just illusion and nobody would really be hurt except in
the illusion. Nothing I do affects my relationship to God negatively.
Or I could just take my money out of the bank and go live in St. John
for a year, leaving my family despite their protests."

I pointed out how that belies a belief that he would misuse the truth.
The Course was saying we don't believe that what we truly want is
good. We can trust ourselves. Even if we are still confused and
bemused by illusion, we are not going to make terrible mistakes. It is
safe to let go of the constraints of guilt because we truly are
extensions of God. We think we need the guilt to restrain the monster
within us; ACIM is saying guilt serves no useful function
(T-14.III.1:4) and in fact keeps us locked into the illusion of our
sinfulness. That illusion about ourselves is the fundamental error.
And it goes on to say that thinking the self has usurped the throne of
God is nothing to be guilty about:

"Seek not to appraise the worth of God's Son whom He created holy, for
to do so is to evaluate his Father and judge against Him. And you
<will> feel guilty for this imagined crime, which no one in this world
or Heaven could possibly commit. The Holy Spirit teaches only that the
'sin' of self-replacement on the throne of God is not a source of
guilt" (T-14.III.15:1-3).

It is just a "trivial mistake" (W-pI.138.11:5). Love has not left
Itself; I, sharing God's nature as Love, could not possibly leave Him,
nor He me (1:5).

It is "foolish" (1:1) to believe that I could <in reality> oppose the
Will of God, and corrupt myself. Any apparent corruption or conflict
between me and God must be an illusion, evidence of nothing except
that I am asleep and dreaming of the impossible (1:7-8).

"To know reality is not to see the ego" (W-pII.12.4:1). Yet
paradoxically we must see the ego first in order to overlook it. It
operates in a hidden fashion, secretly, stealthily. It hides behind
all kinds of cover. We must unmask it, see it for what it is, and then
overlook it, ignore it. As long as we don't know what our imagined
enemy is we will be run by fear. We have to get to the place where we
can see clearly, "Oh! It's just the ego, it's just me thinking I'm
separate." Then we can let it go. "When you have at last looked at the
ego's foundation without shrinking, you will have also looked upon
ours (T, 179)."

Let us look at our ego, then, without shrinking, without being afraid
of it, able to see that it is just a "trivial mistake."

WHAT IS THE EGO? (Part 1)

W-II.12.1:1-2

"The ego is idolatry" (1:1). Idolatry is the worship of an idol, a
false god. That is what the ego is; the worship of an unreal god, the
insane attempt to make an identity that is apart from God, and
intended to replace Him in our awareness. The ego is "the sign of
limited and separated self, born in a body, doomed to suffer and to
end its life in death" (1:1).

Let's pay attention here. The ego is not some "thing" inside of us,
some sort of evil twin, the dark side of our soul. The ego <is> the
whole concept of a separated self that is set apart from "other
selves." Isn't that exactly what we think we are? A distinct soul,
born in a body, struggling through this life and sure to end this life
in death? Doesn't that describe what we think we are? In other words,
the "me" that I think I am, a thing separate from and different from
you, <that> is the ego! Changing our self-concept from ego to spirit
doesn't just mean that this separate self, which was black, becomes
white. It means that this separated self is completely replaced by
something far more inclusive, in fact, by something all-inclusive. I
cease to be "I" in the way I thought I was.

The ego "is the 'will' that sees the Will of God as enemy, and takes a
form in which it is denied" (1:2). If what I think of as "I" is to be
separate and independent, it cannot be united with the Will of God.
The ego <must> see God's Will as enemy because, to the ego, God is
"other," something different from and separate from itself. Since God
is a very powerful "other," His Will represents a threat, a challenge
to the ego's "will." Therefore, the form the "will" of the ego takes
will always be some form of denial of God's Will. For instance, you
know that a child is beginning to develop a psychological ego when he
or she begins to say "No" every time you say "Yes." (Otherwise known
as "the terrible two's.") The ego is a big "No" to God and His Will.

This ego is precisely what we are <not>. "You are not an ego"
(T-14.X.5:5). As we look at what the ego is (or appears to be), let us
not be discouraged or depressed by the picture. What we are looking at
is not what we are; in fact, it is what we are <not>. This imagined
self is the source of all our guilt--and it is unreal, and does not
exist.

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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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