L e s s o n  340

I can be free of suffering today.    

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Hear Today's Lesson~Voice & Music by Martin Weber-Caspers[maz] 

IAMBIC PENTAMETER 
format from URTEXT by Lee Flynn 

What would the day look like if you were free of suffering today? What would be present in your day today and what would be absent? And why does Jesus in this lesson only speak about "today"? Is this lesson just about today? Today is no different than any other day. It is just that we give time reality. In the movie Ground Hog day, remember that the main character relived the day over and over again until he got the lesson. And we are doing the same thing. We relive each day and will continue to do so until we learn the lesson that there is no suffering...that we can open to the Loving Presence at any moment and experience joy and peace instead.

Until we recognize this truth as we do the forgiveness work, we are repeating the same mistake each day of believing in what we have made, believing in the separation, in sin and in guilt and fearing punishment. Now we can make another choice.  Until we see that the only purpose of being in this world is to learn that our suffering comes from our own wish and that this wish gives rise to our thoughts from which comes our experience, we will continue to feel like victims of external events. This lesson is about realizing that the cause of all suffering is in our own thoughts and beliefs and we have the ability now to look at them and allow forgiveness to shine them away. What it means is that we now increasingly see that investing in our egoic thoughts only brings more pain and suffering in our lives, no matter what it looks like. When we see this more clearly, then our motivation to let these thoughts go is enhanced.  But we only become willing to let them go when we truly see that they no longer serve us. In other words there is no longer any payoff for our suffering and instead there is joy when we bring our unforgiving thoughts to the truth.

Jesus reminds us that when sharp edged toys are taken from babies they will scream in rage. "Babies scream in rage if you take away a knife or scissors, although they may well harm themselves if you do not." (T.4.II.5.2) They think their pleasure is in playing with what will hurt them. We are like those babies believing we know where our pleasure comes from. But Jesus reminds us that our our sharp-edged toys, that we think are our source of pleasure, are actually painful for us.  He invites us to look at how we are hurting ourselves. While he will never take away what we think will bring us pleasure, he invites us to release them on behalf of our own happiness. It is in our own self interest to do so.  

We look for happiness where it is not---outside of ourselves and then we suffer when we find nothing that we would want. In Chapter 29.VII "Seek Not Outside Yourself" Jesus reminds us that we will weep each time an idol falls. This is where our sadness and our suffering comes from. We invest in idols instead of the truth that God calls us to. Yet we are assured that there is no answer for our happiness except to respond to His Call. Any other search for happiness is futile. Until we are ready to accept this, we will continue to look for happiness outside of ourselves. "For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want insisting where it must be found. What if it is not there?"

 Jesus acknowledges that we are all here because we still have hope of something outside of ourselves that will bring us happiness and peace. And we will wander aimlessly searching for this something that we will never find until we become 'disillusioned' with our seeking for our happiness where it cannot be found. It is then that we become willing to give up our suffering which comes from attachment to our identity, to our specialness and to special people , things and events of this world.   As long as we focus on the idols, we will not recognize that the source of our pain and suffering is in our own minds. It has nothing to do with how things go in the world.  In fact the purpose of this world is to keep us from this truth.  What we see in the world can now serve a different purpose which is for healing of our minds. The world can now become a classroom for the healing of the mind.  Nothing will be taken away from us. The power of choice is our own.  Do we look at our painful experiences and willingly choose to release them by doing the healing work or do we use them to justify our suffering? What was meant to curse can now bless!

We all have this incredibly deep, prevailing desire to go home. We may experience it as a yearning for our childhood home; or our desire to return to our origin may be a yearning for the good old days or to be in nature and become part of the landscape. It is well described in the movie, "Trip to Bountiful", which shows how deep and prevailing this yearning is as this old woman does everything in her power to return to her childhood home as the music is playing, "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling".....calling all of us to come home.  

You can also see it in the wonderful movie, "August Rush" which is another metaphor for the separation and return home. When movies tug at something very deep in us by eliciting this longing, it is an indication of how deep this yearning is. But what we need to know is that the longing is really for our true home in God.

And now as Christmas approaches, it may be a good time to look at our issues with Jesus. In many places in the course he asks us to forgive him. This lesson tells us that the way out of suffering is through forgiveness. "For he will hear Your Voice directing him to find Christ's vision through forgiveness." (1.4) Because Jesus is the symbol or manifestation of our true identity in God, (Father I am forever an effect of God) (lesson 326) he also then represents a threat to us because of his call to us to go past the ego. The ego resists this call and distracts us from it and sees it as a threat. In the Manual section 23 it says that "in remembering Jesus you are remembering God" since Jesus is one with us. But this is a threat to our individual identity.   

"Jesus has led the way. Why would you not be grateful to him? He has asked for love, but only that he might give it to you. You do not love yourself. But in his eyes your loveliness is so complete and flawless that he sees in it an image of his Father. You become the symbol of his Father here on earth. To you he looks for hope, because in you he sees no limit and no stain to mar your beautiful perfection. In his eyes Christ's vision shines in perfect constancy. He has remained with you. Would you not learn the lesson of salvation through his learning? Why would you choose to start again, when he has made the journey for you?" (M.23.5.1)

"This course has come from him because his words have reached you in a language you can love and understand. Are other teachers possible, to lead the way to those who speak in different tongues and appeal to different symbols? Certainly there are. Would God leave anyone without a very present help in time of trouble; a savior who can symbolize Himself? Yet do we need a many-faceted curriculum, not because of content differences, but because symbols shift and change to suit the need. Jesus has come to answer yours. In him you find God's Answer. Do you then, teach with him for he is with you. He is always there." (Manual for Teachers 23.7.2)

For this we were born says this lesson. Imagine, two ways of looking at our birth. One is the way of the ego and the other is to achieve Christ's vision. Why are we here? According to this lesson, it is only to achieve this day...a day free of suffering, a day of achieving Christ's vision. And every day we are on this earth we only have this as a meaningful goal until we return to the awareness of who we are. For me to know that I can be free of suffering, does not mean that when I do experience difficulty in my day, that it should make me feel guilty. It is such a temptation to feel bad when we don't meet our own expectations for what we set for ourselves as a spiritual achievement. But that is an ego goal and it is destined to fail.  

The truth is that we need do nothing. We are already the Christ. All that is needed is to undo the blocks. And why this is simple is that we only need to look at them and be willing to let them go. Be watchful of your mind and simply be willing to look at what comes up, reminding yourself that any pain and anguish you are feeling is a false belief you are holding and not the truth about you. Willingness is all that is called for. Perfection is a standard that the ego wants to set up for you so that it can crucify you when you fall short. So continue to do the work but do be gentle with yourself.

Finally we are reminded in this lesson that it is a day of joy and gratitude. "Be glad today! Be glad!" (2.1-2) "There is no room for anything but joy and thanks today." (2.3)   So with a grateful heart, let us embrace the lesson and know with certainty that we have help along the way, we can choose again in every moment of pain, and we can be joyful in our day because our purpose is set.

 "Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from Heaven on a dry and dusty world, where starved and thirsty creatures come to die. Now they have water. Now the world is green. And everywhere the signs of life spring up, to show that what is born can never die for what has life has immortality." ( What is a Miracle? 13.5)

Jesus tells us in Chapter 15 to "Make this year different by making it all the same." (T.15.XI.10.11). What he is reminding us is that every situation, person or event we encounter in this dream is just another opportunity for forgiveness. And we do it over and over again until we recognize that that is all this world is for. It is truly like groundhog day. So instead of treating every situation and event as having degrees of difficulty, realize that they all have one purpose: the healing of the mind through forgiveness. That is what today is all about, and every day. Make every day the same.

Love and blessings, Sarah

^{A Course in Miracles}     

^{MANUAL FOR TEACHERS}

4. What Are The Characteristics of God's Teachers?

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