[acimlessons_list] Lesson 301 - October 28

Susan Carrier suelegal at theteks.com
Wed Oct 27 06:28:44 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 301 - October 28

"And God Himself shall wipe away all tears."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

(See also Part II Introduction)

COMMENTARY

This line is a quote from the Book of Revelation in the Bible, Rev. 7:17 and
21:4. We've all shed tears in our lives, some more than others. Back in the
days when I believed in hell I used to wonder how God could wipe away my
tears when people I knew and loved were in eternal torment. I used to wonder
how God could be happy if most of His creatures got snatched by the devil. I
guess wondering about that is part of why I don't believe in that stuff any
more.

But how can God wipe away all our tears? When we look around with our
"normal" (i.e. distorted by the ego) perception, it seems impossible not to
shed at least some tears over the suffering and unfairness of life and
death. The Course's answer is that we will not be looking around with that
kind of perception at all; we will be looking with a new kind of vision.

"Unless I judge I cannot weep" (1:1). How will He wipe away our tears? By
removing all judgment from our minds.

We look on the world and we judge it. We judge it to be unfair, unjust and
unfriendly. We judge some to bevictimizers and others the victims. Most of
all, we judge it all to be real. If sin and suffering are real in the
finalanalysis, then tears are inevitable. "But we have learned the world we
saw was false" (2:4). Not real, but false. Itis an illusion I have
projected; it exists only in my mind. I cannot blame my suffering on it
because the only onewho has attacked myself is me. The only one who has been
unjust is me. I am seeing in the world a reflection ofwhat I believe I have
done in relation to God and my brothers, and nothing more than that. When I
learn toforgive the world, and to accept Atonement for myself, I will no
longer see the world this way.

Jesus is speaking, it seems to me, from a high place, and he is including me
in that place. I'm not aware of havinglearned the unreality of the world
yet; the world still seems pretty real to me, and I still weep. The Course
assuresus that a part of our mind--the only part that has reality in
truth--is already awake, and already wholly knows thatthe world we see is
false. Jesus symbolizes that part of our minds that is awake.

This, however, I do know, based on the promises of the Course: I will see
the world this way. There will come atime when "I cannot weep. Nor can I
suffer pain, or feel I am abandoned and unneeded in the world" (1:1-2). Ican
see it that way at any time I choose, in the holy instant, and I am learning
to allow my perception to betransformed in accord with that vision, more and
more each day.

If it seems hypocritical to repeat the prayer in today's lesson, saying, "We
have learned the world we saw was false," reconsider that opinion. You may
say, "But I don't believe it; how can I say it?" Of course you don'tbelieve
it! That is exactly why you are doing the lesson. If you believed it you
wouldn't need the lesson. Just foran instant, suspend your disbelief. Let
yourself imagine how it would feel to know that all the ugliness of theworld
simply isn't real, that it was nothing but a bad dream, an ugly acid trip,
and that nothing really happened,nothing really was lost, and nobody was
really hurt. Only the projected images died; the reality of life was
totallyunaffected by the dream. Let yourself slip, just for a moment, into
that state of mind. Those little instants will beenough to take you all the
way home.


What is the Second Coming? (Part 1)

W-pII.9.1:1-2

The Course's understanding of the Second Coming differs drastically from the
teaching of most orthodox Christian churches. Traditionally the term refers
to a second physical appearance by Jesus, returning (usually in
asupernatural way, "in clouds of glory") to be judge and ruler of the world.
This section of the Workbookredefines the term completely. (The Course is
notable for the way it redefines and gives new content to nearly every major
Christian term it uses.) Here, the Second Coming is:

1. The correction of mistakes (1:1)

Instead of being a cataclysmic event that overthrows the devil in the battle
of Armageddon, the Second Coming is a gentle correction of our mistaken
beliefs in the reality of sin and separation. The old view of the Second
Coming saw evil as a real force with a terrible energy of its own, a will in
opposition to God, a will which had to be combatted and overcome. The
Course, in seeing the Second Coming as the correction of mistakes, does not
see evil as a real force. Darkness is not a thing , a substance, it is
merely the absence of light. So evil, in the thought of the Course, is not
an opposite to God, but merely a mistake, merely the incorrect idea that an
opposite to God could exist. The Second Coming, then, is simply the
correction of that mistaken idea. Nothing needs to be overcome or
overthrown. The Second Coming simply "restores the never lost, and
re-establishes
what is forever and forever true" (1:2).

2. The return of sanity (1:1)

All minds that have harbored the insane notion of separation from God will
be healed of their delusions. The Second Coming, in the terminology of the
Course, is a corporate event at the end of time. It is the moment when each
aspect of the mind of God's Son, which has, in insanity, believed itself to
be a separate being, is fully restored to its awareness of oneness with all
the other aspects of the one mind. This corporate aspect is shown by phrases
later in this section: "the time in which all minds are given to the hands
of Christ" (3:2); "the Sons of God acknowledge that they all are one" (4:3)
(my emphasis). As long as any part of the one mind is not healed, Christ's
wholeness is not manifest. The "return to sanity" speaks of the entire
Sonship being restored to the awareness of Its oneness.

This "wholeness" aspect of the message of the Course is the motivation for
each of us to reach out in healing to the world. Without our brothers we
cannot fully know our Identity, for they all are part of It. My brother's
healing is my own. No one can be excluded from the Circle of Atonement. No
one is excluded.

"You are God's Son, one Self, with one Creator and one goal: to bring
awareness of this oneness to all minds, that true creation may extend the
Allness and the Unity of God" (W-pI.95.12:2).  
 
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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
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