[acimlessons_list] Lesson 292 - October 19

Mon Oct 18 06:18:43 EDT 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 292 - October 19

"A happy outcome to all things is sure."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

(See also Part II Introduction)

COMMENTARY

"God's promises make no exceptions. And He guarantees that only joy can be
the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us when this is
reached; how long we let an alien will appear to be opposing His" (1:1-3).

"It is up to us when this is reached." We keep coming back to that: when we
experience the outcome of joy in all things is up to us. My experience of
anything less than total joy is due to my own choice to "let an alien will
appear to be opposing His." It seems to me as if my own will is at times
opposing God's. It seems as if I don't want to let go of the little creature
comforts, the physical, mental and emotional indulgences I continually grant
myself in the illusion that I need them.

The law of perception states that "You will see what you believe is there,
and you believe it there because you want it there" (T-25.III.1:3). If I see
in myself a will that differs from God's, I see it because I believe it is
there. I believe my will is different from God's will. And I believe that
because I want to believe that. If I am alike to God in every way, God and I
have only one Will, and the alien will I perceive has no meaning. That is
the exact truth! The alien will has no meaning! It does not exist. That is
why I want to see "my" will as opposed to God's, and why I do. The apparent
conflict in my life is just the ego's vain attempts to hold on to its
identity, which is wholly illusory.

The truth of the matter is that what I see--my resistance to the will of
God, which is my perfect happiness--does not exist. I am projecting that
from my mind. What I see is an illusion of myself. It is not real, and
therefore carries no taint of guilt.

"And while we think this will is real, we will not find the end He has
appointed as the outcome of all the problems we perceive, all trials we see,
and every situation that we meet" (1:4).

All of us go around most of the time consciously or unconsciously disturbed
by the undercurrent of resistance to God we believe exists within our
selves. We think it is real. We read ACIM and determine to be more loving,
more forgiving, and then we encounter a deep resistance to the entire idea,
a seemingly immovable wall that will not allow us to change. We have an
addiction we can't break. We find one relationship in which forgiveness
seems impossible despite all of our efforts. We determine that "Today I will
judge nothing that occurs" and then, minutes later, flare up in anger over
some small unfairness. And we feel despair, we feel we cannot do it. Somehow
we are incorrigible. Some part of us is beyond redemption. Some part of our
will is implacably opposed to God.

As long as we believe that this part of us which seems opposed to God is
real, Jesus is saying, we won't find the real world. We won't find our
escape. We won't find the "happy outcome in all things."

We have to come to the point where we are simultaneously fully aware of that
stubborn knot within us, and aware that it is not real. We have to get to
the place where we see it, own it, and take responsibility for it, and yet
do so entirely without guilt. To look on the ego's darkness without guilt is
possible only if, as we look, we have abandoned all belief in its reality.
That is what the Holy Spirit will enable us to do. Through His enabling, we
will come to see that the ego is an illusion of ourselves projected from our
minds, nothing more than an illusion, and therefore nothing to be upset
about. "Yes, I see the knot of resistance in me, but what I see is not
really there. I am seeing it, but it isn't real. It doesn't change anything
about reality. I am the beloved Son of God, even if I can't see that now."

We want the ego knot to change. We want it to go away. And while we believe
in its reality it won't. The ego is incorrigible. Self forgiveness involves
accepting that about ourselves. The ego will always be the ego, that's the
bad news. But the ego is not who we are, and that's the good news.

When we catch ourselves listening to the ego, believing in the reality of an
alien will, we can come to the point of learning not to take it seriously.
It's as if we say, "I was dreaming again. Now, I choose to be awake." And if
we find we are not ready yet for full wakefulness, if the appearance of
resistance in ourselves still seems real, we can say, "Yes, I see that, I'm
not awake yet, and it still seems real, but at least I am aware that I am
dreaming." The ego is of no consequence. It's "no big deal," as Ken Wapnick
says. Even if we seem to be caught in the dream, we don't have to accept
guilt about it.

"Yet is the ending certain. For God's Will is done in earth and Heaven. We
will seek and we will find according to His Will, which guarantees that our
will is done" (1:5-7).

All the raging of the ego, all the apparent struggle, it's all a dream. The
ending is certain, and is totally unaffected by the ego's madness. There is
no will opposing God's, and therefore, His Will and ours will be done. My
will and God's are in fact the same, which guarantees the outcome. The
craziness of the ego dream has no effects, just as a dream has no effect on
the physical world. The craziness of the ego is just a play of images in the
mind, and nothing more than that. In the end there will be nothing but joy.

"We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the end.
Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have promised us
for every problem that we can perceive; for every trial we think we still
must meet" (2:1-2).

"Help us not interfere." That is our prayer. Resisting the ego, being guilty
about it in ourselves, striving to change it, or demeaning ourselves because
of it, are all forms of interference. They all make the mistake of believing
the ego is real, believing there really is an alien will in us that opposes
God. To not interfere is to recognize that the ego is just a dream about
ourselves, and that nothing need be done about it. The most potent force
"against" the ego is the simple thought: "It doesn't matter. It doesn't mean
anything." Just bring it to the Holy Spirit and let Him handle it. Just say,
"Look, I'm dreaming again." And let it go.

What is the Real World? (Part 2)

W-pII.8.1:3-4

The world is a symbol, either of fear or of love. "Your world is seen
through eyes of fear, and brings the witnesses of terror to your mind"
(1:3). The voice we choose to listen to, within our minds, determines what
we see. If we listen to fear, the world we see symbolizes fear, and is
filled with "witnesses to terror." The world thus tells us what we tell it
to tell us.

When we listen to fear, we see things in the world that justify our fear. We
see hatred, attack, selfishness, anger, conflict and murder. All of these
things are interpretations of what we are seeing. There is another
interpretation possible in every case. We can join our perception to that of
the Holy Spirit, and He will enable us to see the world differently.

"The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness blesses,
so they see a world where terror is impossible, and witnesses to fear cannot
be found" (1:4). When we listen to love or forgiveness, we see things in the
world that justify love. Nothing we see witnesses to terror. Imagine a world
in which "terror is impossible," where nothing you see is saying to you, "Be
afraid!" That is the real world as the Course defines it. Everything is seen
"through eyes forgiveness blesses." The interpretation of everything we see
becomes entirely different from the one we are used to.

The mind determines which world we see. With the help of the Holy Spirit we
can choose what we want to see, and we will see it. The world we are looking
at may or may not have changed, but the interpretation we put upon it will
have done a one-eighty. No longer will we see any of the vast variety of
forms of fear the ego has invented; in their place we will see nothing but
love, or the call for love. Nothing we see will call for condemnation and
punishment. Everything we see will call only for love.

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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
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