[acimlessons_list] Lesson 335 - December 1

Tue Nov 30 06:32:11 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 335 - December 1

"I choose to see my brother's sinlessness."

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

This continues the thought from yesterday's lesson about decision and
choice. Yesterday we read about choosing to follow God's Voice, and
beholding our brother as sinless. Today we read: "Forgiveness is a choice. I
never see my brother as he is, for this is far beyond perception. What I see
in him is merely what I wish to see, because it stands for what I want to be
the truth" (1:1-3).

In other words, what we see results from choices we have made about what we
want to see. The Text speaks about "the decision for guiltlessness"
(T-14.III). It says (see fourth paragraph) that we need to make the choice
to see innocence and not to see guilt. If we make that decision, that is
what we will see.

It is startling to be told that we <never> see our brothers as they are
(1:2). Seeing, or perception (which is a dualistic form of knowing,
requiring a seer separate from what is being seen), simply cannot apprehend
the reality of what we are. What we are seeing is always a symbol, an
imperfect representation. No wonder it is so easy for perception to be
<mis>perception.

Misperception in terms of guilt and innocence happens like this: I see guilt
in myself. I want to get rid of it, so I project it onto a brother. I see
him as guilty because I want to, I have chosen to. I think this will get rid
of my guilt.

Correction of perception happens in reverse: I realize that I am not at
peace and therefore I must have decided wrongly. I decide to see my brother
as innocent. When I have truly made that choice, I will see his innocence.
That is a law: "You see what you believe is there; and you believe it there
because you want it there." (T-25.III.1:3) When you want only love, love is
all you will see (T-12.VII.8:1).

What we are seeing is always what we <choose> to see because we want to see
it. "It is to this alone that I respond, however much I seem to be impelled
by outside happenings" (1:4). The Course is obviously aware that the way it
describes perception is definitely not how it seems to us. We are utterly
convinced that we are seeing what we are seeing because <that's the way it
is>. We believe it is the happenings outside of us that are forcing this
perception upon us. When we see someone as guilty, it isn't because we are
choosing to see them that way--they <are> guilty! We think we are just
seeing what is the truth. The Course hears our objections and replies, "No
matter how much it seems that way to you, I am telling you, you are wrong;
you are responding <only> to what you want to see, not what is really
there."

"Forgiveness is a choice" (1:1). We can see our brother as guilty, or as
innocent, and the choice is 100% up to us; it has nothing to do with what he
did or did not do.

My willingness to see my brother as innocent is the harbinger of my
willingness to see myself as innocent (1:6-7). When I am ready to choose to
see my brother as innocent, it shows that I have begun to let go of the
guilt in my mind that caused me to desire to see him as guilty.

Seeing one another as innocent, seeing one another as sinless, restores the
memory of God to us (2:1). There is a formula that runs through the Course:
First, we see the face of Christ in one another; then we remember God. "In
him I find my Self, and in Your son I find the memory of You as well" (2:3).
So if I want to remember God, what can I do? <Make a choice> to see my
brother as innocent instead of guilty. We find our way to God through our
brothers.

WHAT IS THE EGO? (Part 5)

W-pII.12.3:1-3

"The Son of God is egoless" (3:1). This begins a contrast between the ego
and the Son of God, our true Identity. The Son of God, which is what I
really am, has no ego! The ego is the sign of limited and separated self.
The Son of God is not limited or separated from God. The Son is unlimited,
and co-extensive with the Father; wherever God is, the Son is. They are One.
There is no ego; no self that is apart from, and held distinct from, God.

Our true Self does not know the madness of the ego; the concept of the death
of God (or victory over Him) is inconceivable because the Son lives (abides)
in God (3:2). He lives in eternal joy, and does not know sorrow or
suffering.

Insanity, God as enemy, sorrow, and suffering are all consequences of the
ego delusion. They are as delusional, and as unreal, as the ego itself.
Having been locked in this delusion of a separate self for so long, we can
barely begin to imagine a state of mind in which these things simply do not
exist. Yet that is where the Course is taking us; beyond the ego, beyond the
madness, back into the oneness that has always been and will always be. This
is our true state of mind, and it calls to us in our isolation, drawing us
to return. 

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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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